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County approves Enterprise Zone Amendment 5; EDC highlights small-business lease grants
Summary
The Finance Committee approved boundary changes to the Bloomington-Normal Enterprise Zone (Amendment 5) to add parcels — including some for potential residential development — and heard that the EDC/CDC’s commercial lease grant program has subsidized rent for 17 startups, with more applications pending.
The Finance Committee voted to approve an ordinance authorizing boundary modifications to the Bloomington-Normal Enterprise Zone (Amendment 5) during its Sept. 3 meeting after a presentation from Patrick Hoban, director of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council.
Hoban said the Illinois Enterprise Zone is a state-run program administered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity that can provide sales-tax exemptions on building materials and, in some cases, property-tax incentives for qualifying projects. He described Amendment 5 as an option-2 style amendment that allows multiple parcels to be added if all five taxing bodies in the zone agree that the land is blighted or appropriate for inclusion. The amendment includes roughly 120 parcels (requiring many individual legal descriptions and small connector strips to make the zone contiguous by law), adds parcels the presenters hope will incentivize residential infill development, and removes some non-taxpaying parcels (for example, property owned by entities that do not pay sales tax) to preserve the county’s 20-square-mile cap on total zone area.
Hoban explained that the primary incentive targeted in this amendment is sales-tax exemption on building materials for residential development and that projects in the zone still must follow local zoning and permitting processes. He said the state clarified that residential projects can qualify for material sales-tax exemptions and that the amendment process was used to encourage residential building on underused parcels and infill sites.
The committee also heard an update on a separate, county-supported commercial lease grant program administered by the EDC’s CDC: the program subsidizes rent (up to $10,000 for one year) for businesses that present an approved business plan from the SBDC at Illinois Wesleyan University and meet CDC review criteria. Hoban said the program has funded 17 grants so far (about 82% of recipients are women-owned) and has approximately $210,000 remaining (enough for about 21 more $10,000 grants). Two additional applications were received on the day of the meeting. Hoban said the grants aim to fill vacant storefronts and help local startups test commercial operations without moving existing businesses from one community storefront to another.
Ending: The committee approved the enterprise-zone boundary modifications by voice vote and discussed the lease-grant program as an ongoing tool for downtown and rural business activation; Hoban said he hopes to secure additional private funding to continue the commercial lease program beyond the current allotment.
