DECATUR, Ill. (WAND): Hundreds of dilapidated homes and abandoned lots may soon be bought up by the City of Decatur.
The Clokey Park neighborhood is no stranger to abandoned lots.
"I think, unfortunately, a neighborhood gets judged very quickly by the worst in its neighborhood," Jason Butterick, the President of Clokey Park Neighborhood Association, says. "And often times it get passed on or passed through simply because it doesn't look good."
He'd like to see that change which is a possibility if the city buys the lots from the county trust.
"It's actually, potentially, a great position to be in where now we control it," Jim Gleason, the Decatur City Manager, says.
He says the city already pays to maintain the lots which costs taxpayers about $150,000 each year.
The properties usually go to auction at $600 each.
"The price that the county has these down to is $75 a lot so you're looking at about a $50,000 purchase and we potentially control all of the Macon County trustee properties in Decatur," Gleason says.
The money would come from a $1 million dollar donation from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation for neighborhood revitalization. Once the city owns the properties, they say the possibilities are endless.
"The possibility for neighborhood gardens, for neighborhood parks, new construction through folks like habitat and other opportunities," Gleason says. "I think that those are all possibilities."
"I think the best thing that could happen is bringing new residents into these already existing neighborhoods and redeveloping them, with neighbors in mind," Butterick says.
The city says they're hopeful that the council will approve the purchase because they say when one property starts to dwindle, it affects these neighborhoods as a whole.
"It is not just one property, it's one property that connects to four additional in every possible direction and the ripple effect, unfortunately, it's contagious and that's why you see 700 plus properties held in trust," Gleason says.
The purchase is subject to city council's approval.
