ACTION REQUESTED:
Title
Communication from the City Manager with a Request to Receive and File a Report of PRIVATE PROPERTY AQUIRED by the City of Peoria Economic Development Staff Between 2012 and 2015 (YTD).
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BACKGROUND: In 2013 the City began exploring options for assembling land in older areas of the City for potential urban redevelopment. Since the beginning of 2014, the City has increased its land assembly efforts by assuming ownership of properties in a number of ways:
o Strategic Acquisition - maximizing dollars allocated by the City Council for purchasing property
o Court Ordered Judicial Deed - the abandoned property process
o Donations from private citizens and organizations
o Donations from Lending Institutions - through the National Community Stabilization Trust Donation Program
o Special Acquisitions such as Resident Officer Program
Each quarter Staff will provide Council with a report regarding properties under the City's ownership. This first report is included on the Council agenda; future reports will be included in Issues Update. The reports will include the total number of properties for previous years beginning in 2012; total number of acres/square miles assembled; the amount of funds spent for acquisition, not including legal costs; and a location map of City-owned properties by year of ownership.
Each year staff strives to minimize expenditures while also striving to increase the number of properties owned by the City. The greatest opportunity for successful development in older areas of the City is to assemble large areas of land. It can be assumed that for a new residential development to become self-sustaining and stimulate further growth, a minimum of several blocks of land would be needed. Until then it is unlikely that developers would be interested in investing in new residential development in these areas.
Over the past few years, the City Council and City staff have worked with state legislato...
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