Englewood Gardens affordable housing, Agreement w/ Cook County Land Bank Authority to manage city-owned vacant lots
Good morning, I’m live tweeting through @ChiCouncil‘s Committee on Housing & Real Estate meeting today for @CHIdocumenters. We start at 10 am!
09:46 AM Mar 15, 2022 CDT




We’re getting started with the one public speaker scheduled for today.


Item 1: Loan restructuring and subordination and associated property transfer to RAHF V/5T Englewood LLC for acquisition and rehabilitation of Englewood Gardens residential development.


Some info on the current and proposed owners https://t.co/ypahf5Nqs1


Item 2: Sale of City-owned property at 508-510 S Cicero Ave to Workers for Christ Ministries Apostolic Church to be used for parking


Item 3: Amendment of Municipal Code Sections 2-44-050 and 2-45-040 regarding powers and duties of Commissioners of Housing and Planning and Development

A substitution to this amendment was emailed to the board. It changes a 3-year, instead of a 5-year time period to work on this project.



Cassidy says that most of he land that goes into scavenger sales ends up there.

They’re calling for collaboration between the land bank and the city, essentially saying that they can get more done together than by operating separately. https://t.co/joLqeU1lOW

Some alderman were confused by this map, thinking that it shows exclusively the land that the city would be looking into obtaining, but it’s not. https://t.co/K3865Oq7YD

@AldPatDowell3rd asks if alderman currently have to sign off on the what the land bank acquires, but the answer is no.

She says that this is something they should look into because sometimes alderman have more information on potential buyers who may be unfit or contribute to gentrification.

Ald. Raymond Lopez asks what would happen if an alderman objects to a land acquisition?

The reps from @ChicagoDOH say they would be willing to meet and discuss any potential alderman disapproval but he asks again, “what if I object?”

He says that departments have come into his ward and “swooped in at the last minute” and taken over, leading to bad land/building owners, calling some of the buildings “disgusting”.

Ald. King says that there used to be communication between the land bank and alderman, and asks why that isn’t the case anymore.



There are no more items on the agenda, the meeting is adjourned at 10:57 am.