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Urbana enterprise zone administrators seek technical fix, ask taxing districts for support letters as pause in abatements looms
Summary
City staff reported 58 2025 residential builds (about $21.76M), three commercial projects and the Hope Village tiny‑home initiative; they urged taxing districts to adopt language preserving approved property-tax abatement terms if the enterprise zone designation expires and said the city will pursue a possible 10‑year extension with the state.
City staff told the Enterprise Zone Advisory Board on May 11 that 2025 activity included dozens of residential builds, a tiny‑home project for medically fragile adults and several commercial renovations — and that the city needs a technical correction to preserve approved property-tax abatements if the enterprise zone designation lapses.
Hillary Ortiz, enterprise zone administrator and executive assistant of community development for the City of Urbana, reviewed the program’s two state-backed incentives: a sales-tax exemption on building materials administered by the state and a locally administered property-tax abatement on increases in assessed value for qualifying residential and commercial projects. Participating taxing bodies include the City of Urbana, Champaign County, Urbana School District, Urbana Park District, the Champaign‑Urbana Mass Transit District (CUMTD), Parkland College and Cunningham Township.
Ortiz said calendar-year 2025 recorded 58 residential projects with estimated combined project costs of about $21.76 million (57 single-family homes plus 24 tiny homes as part of the Hope Village initiative). Hope…
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