Committee authorizes land bank to use grant reimbursement funds for preapproved properties
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Summary
The committee voted unanimously to authorize the Kankakee County Land Bank to access CDBG-Strong Communities reimbursement funds for a set of preapproved properties and to use grant caps as not-to-exceed limits for acquisition, demolition or rehab.
The Planning, Zoning & Agriculture Committee on Oct. 21 approved a motion allowing the Kankakee County Land Bank to access reimbursement funds from the CDBG-Strong Communities program for a list of preapproved properties.
Dr. Crawford, executive director of the land bank, presented a slide deck and said the presentation would be his last before leaving the position on Oct. 31. He asked the committee to authorize the land bank to use the county-held grant funds for acquisition, demolition or rehabilitation, noting that many properties are already preapproved by the grant administrator.
The properties presented included multiple parcels in the city of Kankakee and unincorporated areas; addresses shown in the presentation included 643 S. Myrtle, 427 S. Chicago (city-owned, conveyance pending), 755 N. Francine, 79 Pearl St., 326 S. Chicago, 241 NW Avenue, 980 S. Sixth Ave., 1065 S. Fourth St., 338 S. Chicago, 340 N. Harrison, 1329 S. Sixth Ave., 1713 E. Oak St., 665 E. Oak St., 338 N. Wildwood and others noted as preapproved or in preapproval.
Dr. Crawford said the land bank will use the grant’s published caps for “demo,” “rehab” and “acquisition” as the not-to-exceed limits for each project; the committee was told that detailed reimbursement requests will be prepared and submitted by staff.
Motion and vote: Committee member Miss Foster moved to authorize use of the grant reimbursement funds; Mister Kirkstra seconded. A roll-call vote was recorded: Mister Featherling — yes; Miss Weber — aye; Miss Foster — aye; Mister Kirkstra — aye; Miss Amber Turner — aye; Mister Lowey — aye; Miss Denise Turner — aye; Mister Benoit — aye; Mister Alexander Hildebrand — aye. The motion carried unanimously.
Dr. Crawford said an interim executive director from eProperty Plus Solutions, Brian White, will handle operations during the transition. He told the committee the land bank’s systems for identifying and triaging candidate properties are now in place and that more preapprovals are expected in the coming weeks.
Ending: The committee approved the authorization by roll call and asked members to forward additional candidate properties in their districts to the land bank for review.
