Joliet Plans To Buy 2 Blighted Richards Street Homes

JOLIET, IL - The Joliet City Council will decide this week whether to spend $50,000 to buy two blighted homes at 833 South Richards Street and 837 South Richards Street for demolition purposes. Interim City Manager Marty Shanahan indicated the measure has the support of fellow city officials. "The two parcels total five units and the city has already been granted an injunction for demolition," Shanahan noted in a memo to the council. "However, to ease the encumbrance on the property owner and to continue the mission of the Blight Reduction Program, the city has offered to purchase the properties for a price totaling $50,000."

Over the past couple years, Joliet has received $1.26 million in grant funding from the Illinois Housing Development Authority to demolish abandoned properties considered community eyesores. Joliet has a partnership with the South Suburban Land Bank and Development Authority that allows the city and the development authority to carry out a demolition while being reimbursed with grant funding up to $35,000 per unit. So far, according to Shanahan's memo, Joliet has torn down 31 blighted, abandoned residential structures.

According to city officials, the pair of rundown homes encompass the Western Stone Company's subdivision and part of a vacated street in an area known as Chittenden's Joliet addition. Once the city acquires the two lots in the 800 block of South Richards Street, Joliet plans to deed the properties over to the South Suburban Land Bank and Development Authority.

Joliet's City Council has its pre-council discussion meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday and its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

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