Richard Canges can only think of the good old days when reminiscing about a nearby Central Peoria house he visited as a kid.

The house was a nice, brick family-owned residence with a warming fireplace inside.

“That is a shame,” Canges said, as he glanced across the street recently at the now vacated 1618 N. Bigelow St. house, which one neighbor said is an attraction for raccoons and rodents.

The two-story house is one of about 30 houses awaiting the wrecking ball, if the funding for city-wide demolitions exists by the end of the year.

The funds are being stretched to their limit. The city budgeted $300,000 for demolitions in 2011, and has spent $258,208 already to tear down 39 properties.

There are eight properties that need to be torn down, but not enough funds exist for the remainder of this year to do so. Pending the results of court cases, the city could have 66 properties potentially scheduled for demolition – and no money to do them.

Taxpayers pay about

$7,000 for each tear down – $12,000 or so if the house is found to have asbestos in it – posing a rising difficulty for city officials operating on a tight budget.

“It does get overwhelming with the number of properties we see that are vacant and being abandoned and just neglected and are falling into disrepair,” said John Kunski, the city’s director of code enforcement. “The numbers are on the rise. The tough thing for us is we’re looking at a pretty tight budget, too.”

Money issues aside, this growing problem in Peoria is beginning to land on the city’s to-do list more often.

During the council’s July 12 meeting, officials debated whether to add a 14th criteria on defining a dangerous building within its city ordinances.

The change, which could be debated again on Tuesday, allows city attorneys to pursue a demolition if a hearing officer finds three or more housing code violations associated with one property during nine months. The change is only effective for violations not fixed by the property owner.

But altering the existing ordinance isn’t the only thing Kunski’s department and the rest of the city’s staff is looking into.

Other, more big-ticket items, are being examined including the possibility of having the city operate its own demolition program.

The city of Springfield, for instance, moved from contracting out demolitions to operating them within the public works department about two years ago, and a spokesman claims the costs are “way down.”

Peoria officials, though, cite difficulties in the government handling demolitions particularly with the need for asbestos removal, which requires someone trained. Peoria city government doesn’t have anyone on staff who can do that, and asbestos cases represent about a third of all demolition orders each year.

“Most of the time, (cities) don’t want to take the liability because of asbestos,” said Jeremy Hafley, project manager with Accurate Site of Bloomington, the company that handles demolitions for Peoria and a good portion of those in Decatur, Danville, Champaign and other cities. “People would come back on the city and would try to settle a litigation with the city more than they would with a private contractor. They think the city is more flexible with stuff like that.”

Something else Peoria is looking at includes a land bank program, which has been used in Michigan since 1999. It might require state legislature action, though, before it can be utilized on the local level in Illinois.

“We are looking into some of these things other communities do,” Kunski said.

The Michigan program was started in Flint during a time when the state’s manufacturing jobs were rapidly declining, leaving behind blight in many of the larger communities.

To combat the problem, the state instituted the land bank program, which allows governments with assistance from private entities to acquire vacant properties.

Counties or cities can then use tax foreclosures or traditional means, along with special tax and financing benefits, to redevelop the foreclosed properties into a better use.

While land banks in Genesee County, Mich., Atlanta and Cleveland have had some difficulties – namely, on the basis of financing – statistics show vacant properties either being redeveloped or demolished in a much more streamlined manner.

The difficulties in Michigan of rising foreclosures and declining assessed values, while much more pronounced than in central Illinois, are inflicting Peoria. For instance, a recent estimate from the Peoria County supervisor of assessment’s office shows the county’s equalized assessed value declining by about 1.5 percent from 2011 to 2012. If that number does drop, it could be the first time in recent memory when the county’s EAV actually declined from the previous year.

The EAV struggles also come as foreclosures continue to persist. While not as high as 2009 – when there were nearly 600 foreclosures filed in Peoria County – the county is on pace for another year of about 400 new foreclosures, or the same as in 2010.

How to address these rising vacancies could become a bigger issue for policy makers.

“The volume of calls I receive regarding specific demolition inquiries is pretty significant,” at-large City Councilman Ryan Spain said. “It’s something I hadn’t originally expected when joining the council four to five years ago. It’s a really important program for our neighborhoods, particularly during the recession.”

Lorraine Carter, president of Martin-Warren Southside Neighborhood Association in South Peoria, said the existence of vacated properties is an eyesore for areas that once were nice places to raise families.

She, like other neighborhood representatives particularly in the south end, are frustrated with how long it takes to get a house through the court system and into a city contract for demolition.

“These are derelict houses and should be demolished and are nothing but an eyesore on our community,” Carter said.

But the problem isn’t situated just in the south end. In neighborhoods where homeownership rivals the number of rentals, taxpayer-backed demolitions are still in need.

Wayne Nowlan, a resident of Machin Avenue for slightly less than 40 years, is disappointed to see the foreclosed house at 1314 N. Machin Ave. on the city’s demolition order list.

He, like Canges on Bigelow Street, remembers a nearby house that once was occupied by residents who were productive members of the neighborhood. Now, the house is simply an abandoned blight.

“It’s a house that got caught in foreclosure,” Nowlan said. “It’s just tragic.”

The younger generation also recognizes the problems.

“The grass gets real tall,” Jalyn Sander, a 16-year-old Manual High School student, said about the houses near him at 721 and 715 Richmond Ave. “There are a bunch of bugs and mice and all of that there. I’m glad to see (the nearby house) go.”

Residents often do not know who once lived in the houses. They probably don’t know that a good number of the houses’ taxes are being paid by entities that are far removed from the neighborhoods.

In the case of 1704 W. Wisconsin in the East Bluff, for instance, local courts attempted to reach the house’s owner, whose address is in Chicago.

The demolition court case involving the house near Sander’s home listed Thill at Home LLC of Sherman Oaks, Calif., as the owner. The entity didn’t respond to the court’s demolition orders.

Another house, 715 E. Illinois Ave. in the East Bluff, has a bush growing in it and sticking out through the front window. It’s slated to be demolished next week.

The owners listed in the demolition court order include Mark Headley of East Peoria, who could not be reached for comment, and Realtax Developers Ltd., in care of Merle Huff.

Huff, who is known for his controversial purchase in 1998 of the former Pekin High School West Campus, said the property is a tax case and that it’s not one of his. He said he works with Ideal Rentals, which deals with student housing rentals near Bradley University.

“A lot of them live as far away as Florida, some live in Chicago … Pekin,” Carter said. “They have caused this community to go down.”

 

John Sharp can be reached at 686-3282 or jsharp@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @JohnSharp99.