Submitted By
Cara Pavlicek, Village Manager
Reviewed By
CLP
Agenda Item Title
Title
Presentation Related to the Oak Park Arts District and Harrison Street from Austin to Ridgeland.
End
Overview
Overview
Pursuant to the request of Trustees Ott and Salzman, a presentation by staff will be made regarding the status of Village actions being undertaken in the Oak Park Arts District on Harrison Street. The presentation will focus on three specific actions:
1. Lighting
2. Oak Park Vacant Building Ordinance
3. Marketing
Body
Staff Recommendation
Presentation only.
Fiscal Impact
N/A.
Background
Staff will make a brief presentation and provide information related to the Oak Park Arts District and Harrison Street between Austin and Ridgeland related to the following three areas:
Lighting: In April 2007, the Village engaged the Lakota Group to prepare an Arts District Urban Design Plan for Harrison Street within the Oak Park Arts District. Lighting was identified in the Design Plan as a key element to be addressed with a High Rating and a High Priority. Funding in the amount of $1,035,000 was appropriated in the adopted FY15 Capital Fund Budget. The Village Engineer is meeting with the business district on June 11, 2015 to review two alternate lighting designs which relate to options for street and pedestrian lighting which are possible as part of the lighting upgrade. A copy of the adopted FY15 Capital Budget materials are attached. It is anticipated that subject to the feedback and consensus determined as a part of that meeting, staff will proceed with competitive bidding of the lighting project this month and it is anticipated that a contract will be presented to the Village Board for approval in late July 2015.
Vacant Building Ordinance: The Village's vacant building ordinance is very similar to ordinances adopted by other Illinois municipalities. The City of Chicago and Cook County did adopt stronger ordinances that required mortgage holders to pay a registration fee, maintain the property, secure the lawn, cleaning and removing snow from the walkway, maintaining the exterior of the building and in some cases have a night time presence in the building. The Federal Housing Finance Agency filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago arguing the vacant building ordinance was superseded by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The District court agreed and found that the City's rules didn't apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owned homes. The parties did reach a settlement where Fannie and Freddie will voluntarily register its vacant foreclosed properties with the city but not be subject to the $500 registration fee. The Village of Oak Park's ordinance does have such a registration provision in its ordinance. The Village subscribes to a service that provides us with a list of foreclosed properties and we do contact those banks to register the foreclosed property.
Staff recommends that subject to the consensus of the Village Board, a review of the ordinance and case law be undertaken with recommendations returned related to the following issues (1) decreasing the unoccupied period from 2 years to 1 year; (2) adding language that establishes vacancy at a percentage of units vacant within a multi-family building rather than 100% vacancy as currently required; (3) evaluating the impact of similar language for commercial buildings; and (4) evaluate staffing for enhanced enforcement of vacant building plans similar to inspections for active construction sites.
Marketing: As part of the FY15 budget process, the Development Customer Services staff requested $50,000 in funding which was not appropriated for Business Support Grants which would be available to any Business Association upon completion of a Business Association Training Seminar that was proposed similar to the Condo Management training program funded by the Village.
In recent years, it is noted that the Oak Park Arts District has received Village fund from the Village for both the Holiday Décor program as well as the Event Sponsorship program.