McHenry County Blog

From what I have read in various articles, the bill just passed overwhelmingly in the Illinois House to protect property owners from eminent domain is pretty toothless.

Current Tax Increment Financing Districts (TIF) are exempt from its provisions.

And, so are “blighted areas.”

Here’s how Tribune reporter Christi Parsons put it in her article

If the condemnation were needed to clean up blight, however, the higher standard wouldn't apply, even in cases where the land was being seized for private development.

That might sound fair unless you have heard a presentation about how “blight” is defined from a TIF consultant, as I did at a Crystal Lake Park Board meeting. If your property is not up to current code standards, it can be designated “blighted” by a city council or village board and put in a TIF district.

Most of our home was built in the late 1920’s. The height of the stairway is too low, so, under the extremely lax definition of blight used to allow the creation of TIF districts, out home could be put in a TIF district and condemned under the new law, as I interpret it.

The major change, according to the Bloomington Pantograph:

Under the proposal, the burden of proof shifts to the local governments, which must pay attorney's fees if the landowner wins the case. In cases where property is seized, the government also would have to pay relocation costs.

Here is the Association Press story.

I could not find the article in the online edition of the Northwest Herald, but the Daily Herald did publish it.

The bill is Senate Bill 3086.