Land Bank working with Macon County to demolish blighted properties

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - The Central Illinois Land Bank Authority is starting its first round of demolitions in Macon County.

The process is starting with a $337,000 Strong Communities Program grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority. The land bank wrote the grant application and is working with Macon County to administer the grant for Macon County.

This is one of three Strong Communities Round 2 IHDA grants, totaling over $1 million, that the land bank is administering.

CILBA’s Executive Director Mike Davis said there are problems with letting properties deteriorate over time with no action.

He said an average individual abandoned house will:

1) Contribute very little in tax revenue

2) Decrease property values on neighboring property within 500 feet by 4%-15%

3) Decrease quality of life for neighboring families; increasing crime and other public safety problems like fires

4) Discourage investment in surrounding properties.

Macon County Administrator, Tamara Wilcox, said, “We worked with our local township officials to identify properties that needed to be demolished. We have already identified the next ten properties to spend down the remaining grant funds. These state grants are really tough to administer so this has been a learning process for the County. It’s great to have the land bank’s help in administering over $300k in state funded demolitions in Macon County.”

The first round of demolitions includes nine properties in Macon County.

JRH Services, based in Decatur, was the lowest of four bidders at $94,220 to demolish the properties.

The land bank has separate landfill contracts for all its demolition work so actual tonnage, not estimated tonnage, is being paid using these state grants.

All demolition waste will go to Waste Management’s Valley View landfill in Macon County.

Jon Kindseth, CILBA’s Board Chair and Deputy City Manager in Decatur, said, “I have seen CILBA do over 50 demolitions in small, rural villages in Vermilion County with IHDA grant funds and I’m excited to see them expand this work to Macon County. Beyond this demolition work tackling blight, they are also doing roof replacements for low-income homeowners in Decatur and rehabbing abandoned homes to create affordable homeownership opportunities in Decatur. This region is lucky to have a land bank like CILBA that is taking a big picture approach to solving our region’s housing challenges.”