Our April meeting will be held next Monday the 30th at First Church of the Brethren, Yale and Ash, 7 p.m. Mark Mahoney will provide latest update on enforcement efforts regarding boarded property, code violations, fly dumping, and excessive grass. We will also have members of the Regional Planning Commission make a presentation on the newly proposed bike paths through out Sangamon County. I think you’ll find it interesting to see how these path intersect our neighborhoods.

I also need to get your neighborhood summary describing your location, demographics, and pluses/negatives as it relates to your impact on the downtown area (refer to Enos Park sample). This information will be given to the seven researchers coming to Springfield May 7-9 as part of the SDAT project.

I’ve attached 2 press releases regarding the SDAT team members and e-mail contact with Cindy Davis and Todd Higginbotham to confirm your involvement.

SDAT Schedule

SDAT Springfield PR

SDAT Springfield Final Team Announcements

www.SDATSpringfield.com

Steve Combs, 494-6668

“We’ve had this problem for a long time,” said Mayor Pete Buttigieg. But, he added, “I think there’s definitely an uptick in people’s readiness to be part of the solution.”

Not far from the Portage project, Kathy and John Oxian were checking last week on three vacant houses they purchased at recent tax sales — one for as little as $750 — to avoid the prospect of demolition on their block of Sancome Avenue. And Connie and Tom Tooley were clearing a lot they bought from the city for $25. Their hope is to create a pocket park adjacent to downtown.

A former mayor, Stephen Luecke, bought a foreclosed property on his street, two doors down from his own 100-year-old home on Leland Avenue. He fixed it up and rented it.

“One of the challenges here is that property is so affordable, it’s hard to buy a house, fix it up and get back what you put into it,” Mr. Luecke said. “But we do have a core of people who love our old housing.”

…

In recent years, cities and counties across the country have increased their efforts to try to either maintain or demolish blighted properties in the wake of the mortgage foreclosure crisis. And federal programs designed to help stabilize neighborhoods are increasingly common — indeed, several are active in South Bend alone. But what makes South Bend’s methods interesting is the extent to which ordinary people of ordinary means are using their own hands and pocketbooks to be part of the solution to a complex problem.

Watch the video…

Read the full story at NYTimes.com…

I have invited Lisa Stott, Chuck Pell and other members of the SDAT Steering Committee, Victoria Ringer, and Michael Higgins, to explain how the neighborhoods encircling the downtown area can contribute to increasing the number of people who work, live, and play in the central core of the City. Whether its changes in traffic flow, enhanced walking and biking facilities, incentives for neighborhood retail development, promotion of unique history and architecture, or more aggressive marketing of inner city neighborhoods as bedroom communities for downtown, each of our neighborhoods has something special to offer.

SDAT Bus Tour, Group Sessions & Public Hearings in may

On Monday, May 7th there will be a bus tour to orient the 10 members of the Sustainable Design Assessment Team to downtown Springfield. Last month members of the ICON Steering Committee took 3 members of the SDAT group on a tour of the neighborhoods. The upcoming tour will concentrate more on the downtown however we want the surrounding neighborhoods to provide information we will give to the Team that describes the neighborhood and how it can contribute to increasing the viability of downtown. I’ve attached an example of how we would describe Enos Park.

In addition to the tour there will be a series of small group sessions and public hearings over a three day period (5/7-9/12). We hope you will clear your schedule for this project.

City Mowing Bids

We’ll also have an update on the mowing bids with the City. There will be a meeting in the Council chamber, noon, Wednesday the 28th. Final application bids are due Friday the 30th by 2 p.m. See you next Monday.

Steve

Read about the process of “blotting” – homeowners taking possession of adjacent abandoned property to expand small city lots into suburb-sized “blots”.

Enterprising homeowners are changing the landscape in many depopulated cities, bringing the look of spacious suburbs to abandoned urban neighborhoods.  For less than the cost of an airplane ticket, in some instances, owners can acquire lots next door to create their own oasis, complete with pools, courtyards or even orchards. Cities, meanwhile, are spared the upkeep of these properties.  “I think it’s a good strategy” for our 60,000 vacant lots, says Marja Winters, deputy director of Detroit’s Planning and Development Department. “In a lot of them, there’s no interest, so why not put them in the hands of citizens that are going to own it and care for it?”

This type of side-yard expansion, once expensive and time-consuming, has taken off in recent years as cities have foreclosed on abandoned properties, putting them in a land bank to be sold to interested parties.

How blotting works
The process of acquiring vacant lots around an owner’s property is different in every city and can take anywhere from 90 days to nine months, depending on the process and approvals necessary.  Owners, in most cases, must demonstrate ownership of their own property and prove that it is up to code and that they have the means to maintain it. They also must inform the city of their plans for the lot they wish to acquire. Many cities require these lots to be fenced in, and some will provide fencing material.

What does a blot look like?
These blots run the gamut from two small lots to four or five, and can take up most of a city block.  For some, the extra space has provided a place to put in a wheelchair ramp or a raised garden bed, or allowed for the planting of trees for privacy. Others have prompted large additions such as a new wing or a move to change the orientation of the house to face away from the street and to a central garden.

The problem with blots
Of course, larger lots don’t solve the problems that some of these emptied-out neighborhoods have with crime, and they can’t replace prime amenities, parks or good schools.  Gethers, who moved to the neighborhood in the early 1990s when every house was occupied, still doesn’t like having a vacant house across the street and empty lots next to her, but she says so far there has been no vandalism or vagrants.  “We would really love to have neighbors” move in there, she says.  Without much oversight from the city or neighborhood groups, some side-yard expansions have wound up as car parks or places for people to store their junk, Dewar says.

Changing the urban footprint?
It remains to be seen just how much of an impact blotting will have on the urban landscape in cities such as Detroit, Cleveland and New Orleans. Right now, these big lots make up just a small fraction of the tens of thousands of vacant lots the cities own in these areas. Many blighted sections of these cities are so filled with apartments and renters that there’s not enough vacant land, or non-landlord owners, to create blots.  Time will tell just how much blots bring up property values in the areas where this expansion has been allowed. Harris looks at it this way: “You can actually sell a house now on this street.”

Read the full story by Melinda Fulmer of MSN Real Estate

Download the PDF…
Read the full story on MSN Real Estate…

The Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission invites you to participate in the development of a Regional Comprehensive Plan.

There are two ways for you to be involved in this process:
1. Attend one of three community workshops to tell us your concerns, values, and desires:
March 8th – 6:00 pm
Sangamon Co. Dept. of Public Health
2833 South Grand Avenue East
Springfield, IL 62703
217-535-3100

2. ONLINE: www.hlplanning.com/sscrpc

Download the workshop flyer…

March 6, 2012, from 4 – 7 pm
Lincoln Library
326 South 7th Street
Springfield IL

Please attend this meeting and provide input on how the State of Illinois’ Rail Plan will affect our downtown community!

Following our meeting last month, members of the ICON Steering Committee hosted a bus tour around the city for three members of SDAT. These three are part of a larger team that will be surveying the downtown area later in May. They were here to get an overview of Springfield in an effort to find ways to get more people to work, live, and play in the inner core of the City. The surrounding neighborhoods, most of whom are active members of ICON, will be included in the final study.

The full team of 8 to 10 professional people from around the country will return May 7-9 for three days of meetings and analysis. ICON has been asked to arrange another bus tour for the entire group. Individually, we should all keep those dates open to participate in a series of group sessions and public hearings. More information will be forthcoming!

Just a reminder that Thursday is the last scheduled hearing on the 2013 budget. It should provide a great deal of insight as to how each aldermen will try to balance the cost of basic services with jobs for public employees.

Look forward to seeing you next week.

Steve
494 6668

Director McCarty indicated OBM is anticipating 1) delayed State Income Tax from 2012 will be collected and attributed to 2013, and 2) a specific grant for firefighting equipment will both provide some of the new funding for a balanced budget. The $1.6 M delayed State Tax and $1.2 M SAFER grant plus a small (1.5%) anticipated increase in the 2013 Sales Tax figures, coupled with a reduction of $639,000 of staff expenses, as recommended in the Maximus report, is projected to put the city in a position to repay the two ongoing debts and still allocate $8 M for streets and sidewalks.

Although the SAFER grant provides for new fire trucks, the budget does not reflect any new funding for police or fire staff. However, approximately 20 police officers will be called up to start the year long process of qualifying for assignment. This will not increase the total number of police officers but fill anticipated openings caused through fruition.

Joe McMenamin, Ward #7 alderman, reminded the members that there were going to be a series of public hearings at 5:30 p.m. on February 2nd, 6th, 7th, 9th, and 16th. You can find a detailed report for the 2013 budget on the City’s website:
Overview of proposed budget…
City of Springfield page to download entire budget…

Following the presentation the membership unanimously approved a By Law change related to the number of positions on the Steering Committee and the election process. Once approved the following members were elected to the new positions: Karen Jacobs, Parliamentarian, filling the last year of Jen Aholt’s term; Carol Kneedler and Polly Poskin, new At Large positions.

The next ICON membership meeting will be held Monday, February 27th. The public is invited. If you want to join ICON, individual membership is $20. You can join at the meeting or get an application from our website.

Expect to hear a lot about a WALKABLE COMMUNITY in the next few months. Springfield, as a rule, isn’t.  We are more of a “car-dependent” city.

Members of the Sustainable Design Assistance Team pointed out the city generally is walking-challenged during an initial two-day visit last week to downtown Springfield. By extension, it is hard to get people to live downtown if a pharmacy, a clothing store or especially a supermarket is not within walking distance.

There is a website — www.walkscore.com — that rates communities, ZIP codes and even addresses on “walkability.” The scale is zero to 100. Higher is best. A score of 70 and up is given to walkable communities.  If the score is below 50, reach for the car keys. The city of Springfield scored 43.

“It’s based on proximity to a grocery store or proximity to basic social services, or to the dry-cleaner and mass transit. It takes all the factors and calculates them,” said Erin Simmons, director of design assistance for the American Institute of Architects.  AIA is providing aid to the study team. The group is scheduled to return to downtown this spring for a formal survey and to make recommendations.

“I live in the middle of (Washington) D.C., and I think I live in 94 percent walkable community,” said Simmons. “As a case in point, I drive my car once a month.”

OK, Springfield is not Washington, D.C. But some neighborhoods do much better than others. Here is a random, completely unscientific sample:

• Downtown historic district had the highest score at 90; it was rated a “walker’s paradise.”
• Enos Park area: 68.
• Douglas Park neighborhood: 68.
• Glen Aire subdivision: 60.
• Jerome, Leland Grove and Washington Park scored 40-55.
• Village of Southern View gets a 46.

AIA members acknowledged the scores are more fun than science, but the point is that even car-dependent cities can improve.

Read the full story at the SJ-R.com…

We will review the following issues-

1.   membership registration
2.   proposed By Law changes
3.   Ordinance Review Committee points for consideration regarding garbage collection

Because our current By Laws call for a 30 day notification of proposed By Law changes, and those eligible to vote on the changes must be members in good standing at the time of the notification, we will ask those of you who plan to join ICON for 2012 do so at this meeting so you’ll be able to vote on the recommended changes at our January 30, 2012 meeting.

We will also review the initial points of concern outlined by the Ordinance Review Committee regarding garbage collection. I have attached the outline of those points which has been given to Mark Mahoney and Mark Cullen.

Hope all of you will be able to attend. If not Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!