Throughout January and February, the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) is curating a blog series on vacant properties in metropolitan Chicago. In the coming weeks, MPC's blog, The Connector — as well as the web sites of some of our partners — will feature posts from elected and appointed officials, policy advocates, finance experts, and others about the many ways we are all working together to get a handle on this growing regional and national housing and community development challenge. The opinions expressed in these posts do not necessarily reflect MPC's opinion.
The following post is an invitation from the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development and Dept. of Building and Zoning to a workshop for municipalities on Cook's Vacant Building Ordinance, which will take effect Feb. 12. Please help us spread the word about this important training, and follow the blog series at www.metroplanning.org/vacantproperties.
You are cordially invited to a workshop, hosted by the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development and Dept. of Building and Zoning, to explain the recently passed Vacant Building Ordinance and how it can help your municipality. As you may be aware, the ordinance allows interested municipal governments to "opt-in," with the goal of creating a uniform set of guidelines for maintaining and securing vacant properties throughout Cook County. The workshop will provide additional information regarding the features of the ordinance, including the creation of a vacant building registry and the ability to adjudicate violations of the ordinance through the Cook County Department of Administrative Hearings.
We believe these features will be valuable tools to participating municipalities as we all work to address the cost, crime, and public safety issues that vacant buildings have created in our neighborhoods and hope you will be able join us to learn more about this ordinance.
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012
Time: 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Location: George Dunne County Building, 69 W. Washington, 17th Floor
Please use this link to register online and to pre-submit any questions you may have about the ordinance.
If you have any questions or need more information please contact Patrick Carey at 312/603-1055 or patrick.carey@cookcountyil.gov.