Aurora has moved closer to expanding its River Edge Redevelopment Zone that allows for historic tax credits for development projects.
The City Council recently passed a resolution to hold a public hearing on the amendment and expansion of the redevelopment zone, known as the Aurora River Zone.
A day later, the council’s Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee recommended the actual ordinance to actually expand the zone, after the public hearing is held.
The River Edge Redevelopment Zone is a state program designed to help old river cities redevelop older properties. Historic properties inside the zone are eligible for state historic tax credits, and Aurora has had such a redevelopment zone since the state first allowed it about seven years ago. Aurora was not only the first city among five river towns in the state to use the zone, it was the first to expand it, which it has done twice before.
State legislation has never said specifically just how far from the river a River Edge Redevelopment Zone can go. The only limitation is that it includes only five cities in the state: Aurora, Elgin, Rockford, East St. Louis and Peoria.
The ability to get state tax credits from being in the zone has been key to such redevelopment projects underway as the old Copley Hospital campus, the Keystone Building, the Terminal Building, the former West Aurora Administration Building and the Hobbs Building.
It was the expansion that allowed Evergreen Real Estate Group, of Chicago, to use the tax credits on the St. Charles Senior Living Center project, which was remodeled into the old St. Charles Hospital building on East New York Street.
Evergreen is looking at the possibility of converting a former corset factory at Union Street and Fourth Avenue into multi-family residences.
Back in March, the city’s Development Department floated an idea to aldermen to extend the River Edge Redevelopment Zone down an East Side street to get to that property. But city officials decided it would be better to just extend the zone further east, rather than just extending it down a street.
The proposed new boundary would extend the zone as far east as Smith Street, except for one small portion that would extend to part of Hill Avenue. The northern border would be Liberty Street and the southern would run along Seventh Avenue for part of the way, then to Fifth Avenue.
Some possible redevelopment sites in the expanded area, besides the former corset factory, would include Emmanuel Lutheran School, the former Todd Elementary School, the former YMCA property at 480 Garfield Ave., and the former Lincoln Elementary School site, city officials said.
slord@tribpub.com
