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The city of Springfield has pledged to reexamine its
tax-increment-financing policy after Enos Park residents voiced concerns
with current procedures at a neighborhood-association meeting Tuesday.
Enos Park resident Owen Anderson told city officials in attendance
— public-works director Mike Norris, Office of Planning and Economic
Development director Mike Farmer, and TIF administrator Bissi DiCenso
— that the main issue surfaced after the neighborhood association
discovered a pending ordinance that would authorize the demolition of
unsafe, vacant homes in Enos Park with the use of $100,000 of the
neighborhood’s TIF funds. Anderson said that the neighborhood association was
surprised by the ordinance because the city administration had promised to
notify Enos Park neighborhood-association members of any project using
their TIF dollars. “We would appreciate some input on you
guys’ spending our money,” he said. “With the $100,000,
we learned about it after the fact — it would have been to nice to
learn about it before.”
Farmer said in a separate interview earlier this week
that his office welcomes input from neighborhood associations but does not
need their approval before expending TIF funds on city projects. But on
Tuesday, after hearing from Enos Park residents, he agreed to contact the
neighborhood association in the future before redevelopment ordinances move
to City Council.
Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman pulled the ordinance from
last week’s council agenda and said that if Enos Park residents are
on board he will propose a new ordinance for the demolition of specific
homes using a smaller amount of TIF dollars. He said this should leave more
funds for other neighborhood improvement projects. Enos Park residents also voiced concerns with the
city’s policy saying that only non-owner-occupied residences are
eligible for TIF dollars and that redevelopment projects that use public
money must use contractors who pay the government-set prevailing wages.
Paying workers the prevailing wage, which typically involves union-scale
wages, adds to the cost of rehab projects, they argue. Farmer said that sidewalks and infrastructure
improvements were once the main use of TIF funds but that if there is a
strong interest for homeowner rehabbing and renovation he will revisit and
possibly amend the city’s TIF policy. He also agreed to search for a
legal way of circumventing the prevailing wage to cut back on the high
expense faced by residents.
Contact Amanda Robert at arobert@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2007.
