2005-55 AMENDING CITY CODE - CHAPTER 24 - NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENTS COMMISSION

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COUNCIL MEMORANDUM #2005-13 DATE: June 16, 2005 TO: Honorable Mayor Osborne and City Council FROM: Steve Garman, City Manager � SUBJECT: Creation of City Code Chapter 24, Neighborhood Improvements Commission SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends approval of the proposed ordinance creating a Neighborhood Improvements Commission. BACKGROUND: The creation of this neighborhood improvements �' commission would represent the implementation of the latest in proposed ' programs and activities suggested in the city's TIF Redevelopment Plan and, more recently, by a neighborhood task force designed to find ways to strengthen area neighborhoods. Among the task force's top priorities were the creation of this commission, finding a way to improve the corridor between downtown and the city's west end, moving forward with demolitions throughout the city and instituting programs designed to improve neighborhood housing and other facilities. In the last several months the city's economic development department presented and the City Council authorized city staff to pursue: • A CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM: The program would call for a $2.6 million line of credit to be used to redevelop the West Main Street Corridor from Church Street to Fairview Avenue. Ifi is designed to improve the corridor between downtown and the city's west end. • A BUILDING REHAB PROGRAM: This program would utilize $500,000 to rehabilitate and restore buildings along the West Main Corridor between downtown and the west end of the city. • DEMOLITIONS: Following the Illinois courts' action to reverse a decision deeming demolition's unconstitutional, staff has begun actively pursuing the demolition of properties deemed to be dangerous and/or beyond repair. Since reinstituting the demolition program the city has torn down 15 problem properties and currently has a list of almost 100 that are being pursued.