Up to one third of grant to land bank goes for administration

Rockford area land bank gets to work

By Isaac Guerrero
Staff writer

Posted Mar 19, 2019 at 3:04 PMUpdated Mar 19, 2019 at 9:02 PM

ROCKFORD — The Rockford region’s new blight-fighting tool took its first steps Tuesday as members of the Northern Illinois Land Bank Authority adopted policies to guide its mission of putting vacant, dilapidated properties back to productive use.

The Region 1 Planning Council was awarded a $225,000 grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority to establish the land bank, which now includes Rockford, Loves Park, Machesney Park, South Beloit, Belvidere and Boone and Winnebago counties.

Appointees from six of those local governments convened Tuesday — no South Beloit representative was present — for the land bank board’s inaugural meeting.

The board approved policies about how the land bank will acquire property, how members of the land bank may withdraw their membership and a symbolic policy stating that the land bank will not use eminent domain because it doesn’t have such power.

The land bank will rely on staff from R1 Planning Council — namely landbank coordinator Eric Setter — to locate, acquire and then sell or deed the properties to buyers who have a more productive use in mind for parcels that are tax delinquent, blighted and vacant.

Up to $75,000 of the $225,000 IHDA grant can be spent to pay for the staff time of the planning council. The remaining $150,000 can be used for land acquisition. Setter said he’s actively looking for properties so the land bank can begin its work.

The Boone County Board appointed one of its own — board member Sherry Giesecke — to serve as the county’s representative on the land bank board. Giesecke said she has high hopes for new blight-fighting tool.

“I hope that this will be a very powerful tool for the northern Illinois region to pursue prosperity for everyone,” Giesecke said. “I think there are so many jewels around here that have been long forgotten and this will be a way for us to restore these jewels.”

The land bank board will convene for its next meeting in May.

Isaac Guerrero: 815-987-1361;iguerrero@rrstar.com; @isaac_rrs

Above is from:  https://www.rrstar.com/news/20190319/rockford-area-land-bank-gets-to-work