By Nick Reiher

Even after a three-hour meeting July 14, Will County Board members still had a lot of questions about a proposal for the county to create, become a part of, but not run a separate board designed to help spur local development by converting dormant properties from obstacles into economic strengths.

There were still sufficient questions and mistrust of beginning the process of creating a land bank to have the issue pulled from consideration at the regular County Board meeting on July 16.

An amendment proposed by Board Speaker Joe Van Duyne, D-Wilmington, on the day of the full board meeting to give more control of an independent board to the county executive elicited comments regarding hidden agendas.

He called the amendment an olive branch, a way to keep the issue alive before federal monies need to be returned by Oct. 31.

Board Member Judy Ogalla, R-Monee, referred to it in terms of a bribe to get bipartisan support for the Land Bank process.

At the July 14 Committee-of-the Whole meeting, Kayla Sorsensen, Vice President of External Affairs for the Will County Center for Economic Development, and Hugh O’Hara, Executive Director of the Will County Governmental League, explained the concept of a Land Bank for board members during a Committee-of-the Whole.

Land Banks, Sorensen told the board members, Land Banks “are a tool for economic development.”

O’Hara said efforts to address some 1,500 properties throughout the county as stagnant – yet paying taxes – have been difficult to accomplish individually.

The Illinois Legislature created a statute that allows counties and municipalities to form a Land Bank, and together – through an intergovernmental agreement — identify and purchase properties in their individual areas that may be stifling economic development, such as an abandoned or run-down property or properties that could have developers looking elsewhere due to a lacking return on investment.

Officials from the Will County Center for Economic Development want to use the remainder of around $1 million remaining from the $5 million The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds the County Board awarded to CED several years ago to help spur economic development.

That money, according to CED, would be used to set up the independent board and fund some initial land purchases requested by county officials or officials in towns that wanted to participate in the group with properties they have identified.

“Everyone has a seat at the table,” O’Hara said.

In addition to representatives from each participating community, the Land Bank statute recommends members expert in finance, banking, planning, engineering, architecture, development; and workforce development, organized labor, community development, nonprofit leadership, commercial development, or related fields.

CED would help facilitate creation of the local Land Bank board, and then step away, allowing it to function independently.

Yet several board members at the July 16 County Board meeting kept referring to CED controlling the Land Bank board, taking away any say from the county.

“CED is not running the land bank!” Board Member Dawn Bullock, D-Plainfield, finally emphasized, adding CED would help set up the bank and the independent board, and then step away.

If the County Board voted to adopt an intergovernmental agreement to begin the process, the county could have several members on the board, but would have no control over the board, CED officials say, with no liability for additional costs or effect on taxes.

The boilerplate intergovernmental agreement provided by CED recommends the county executive and board speaker be on the land bank board.

Ogalla said the Republican and Democrat County Board leaders also should be on that board. O’Hara at the July 14 meeting discouraged that idea, saying it would introduce politics.

“Of course it’s political,” Ogalla responded at the July 16 meeting, “everything is political.”

Ogalla added there have been problems with land banks, and she would like to see examples of the 1,500 properties in the county that could be suitable for a land bank.

Land Banks in Illinois already include the South Cook County Land Bank, the Lake County Land Bank Authority, the recently formed bank in DuPage County; the Kankakee County Land Bank; the South Suburban (Cook) Land Bank; and the Northern Illinois Land Bank, which includes Boone, McHenry, Stephenson and Winnebago counties.

University Park Mayor Joseph E. Roudez III attended the Committee-of-the-Whole meeting on the 14th, and said the Land Bank in his area helped reduce the number of blighted properties in his community from more than 200 in 2019 to fewer than 24.

Ogalla also noted County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant chairs the CED Board, and wondered about her influence in the process.

Bertino-Tarrant said she had no part in it, and told O’Hara if he wanted to pull the request for a land bank and not bring it back, she would support that.

That led Van Duyne to recommend pulling his amendment, which ultimately led to the discussion of the initial resolution to be withdrawn as well.

Van Duyne told Farmers Weekly Review he didn’t know if the issue would come before the board again. Sorensen and O’Hara could not be reached for comment by the print deadline July 16

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.