By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington aldermen were unanimous Monday night in adopting a tougher stance against landlords who repeatedly violate city housing codes. The city council, with two members voting no, also agreed to reward a company with taxpayer incentives for moving its business to the former Wildwood Industries property on Ireland Grove Road.
Alderman Karen Schmidt said she was delighted to see the staff’s recommendation requiring housing code violators to pay at least a $110 fine, to cover costs of the administrative court process. Second offenses will result in more frequent inspections of their property.
Alderman Scott Black wishes the city could take an even harder line on offending landlords.
“We’ve been talking about this forever,” said Black.
“I wish it were more aggressive than this, but this is the recommendation from staff, and so I’m supportive,” Black said.
Staffers drafted the new rules after a fire in February severely damaged a 12-unit apartment building on Gettysburg Drive, which happened 11 days after a city inspector found 226 code violations there. The same landlord was initially written up for 572 code violations at apartment buildings on West Front and Grove Streets.
Council members want to review in about a year whether the fines are indeed covering court costs.
In other business, the council voted 7-2, with Aldermen Schmidt and Joni Painter voting no, to provide economic incentives for Commercial Packaging with incentives to move to the old Wildwood Industries site at 2047 Ireland Grove Road from two locations in Normal.
The city will pay Commercial Packaging up to $40,000 for dismantling the deteriorating Wildwood water tower. In addition, the government will cut fees charged to the firm from $80,000 to $32,000 for connecting a driveway to Mercer Avenue.
Alderman Painter wondered why the requests for incentives were not made a year ago when the packaging company purchased the property. Painter also questioned what the city should tell other companies whose incentive requests were turned down.
Community Development Director Bob Mahrt said the city takes such requests on a case by case basis, and Mahrt added the city would collect no fees at all if Commercial Packaging did not add a driveway.
“They are not obligated to remove the water tower. They’re not obligated to put in the secondary entrance that would take some additional traffic off of Ireland Grove,” said Mahrt.
“So they have not done these projects yet. I don’t know that if this incentive was not provided to them that they would still continue with that project,” Mahrt also said.
Commercial Packaging currently employs 40 people.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
