Belleville council advances TIF proposal to stop ‘cancer’ around blighted strip mall

Belleville city officials are moving forward with a proposal to create a tax-increment-financing district to help save a “blighted” area around Bellevue Park Plaza.

On Monday night, the City Council scheduled a public hearing for 4:30 p.m. Oct. 2 at City Hall.

Aldermen already had decided in May 2023 to spend $28,900 for a consulting firm, Moran Economic Development, to prepare a TIF redevelopment plan. That was completed in June.

“If we don’t do something to enhance the businesses and the buildings in this corridor, we’re going to have a serious problem, more than a serious problem, in the next five or 10 years,” Ward 4 Alderman Johnnie Anthony said last year. He called it a “cancer” that could spread.

On Monday night, the City Council scheduled the public hearing with no further discussion.

Illinois law allows cities to create TIF districts with special funds for infrastructure improvements and economic incentives. As property values rise, all or a portion of additional tax revenue generated goes into the funds instead of schools and other local taxing districts.

The idea of a Bellevue Plaza TIF District originated with the City Council’s Economic Development and Annexation Committee. Anthony and other members expressed alarm at what was happening near the intersection of West Main Street and North Belt West.

Vacant and rundown buildings and strip malls are surrounded by pothole-filled parking lots with little or no landscaping, derelict signs and other evidence of urban decay. Some businesses have closed.

“Because of the issues with this area, we’ve got to give it a fighting chance,” Cliff Cross, director of economic development, zoning and planning, told committee members.

A map of the proposed TIF district shows the boundary starting with Gray Street to the north and going south on 46th Street, east to 45th Street (in the middle of a block), south on 45th Street, west on North Belt West, southwest on 45th Street, northwest on Main Street and northeast on 47th Street.

The area is essentially a notch that was left out of Belleville’s TIF 3 district, created in 1986 to cover most of the city. At that time, Bellevue Park Plaza was in good shape, but now the strip mall and other businesses need a “facelift,” according to Cross.

Bellevue Park Plaza is Belleville’s oldest strip mall, built in 1956. The proposed TIF district also would cover the old Sears building behind the strip mall, the CVS Pharmacy and another shopping center across North Belt West with Save a Lot and Family Dollar stores.

The district wouldn’t include three small strip malls along North 47th Street that formerly housed Mallo’s Bakery and Remick Hardware. They’re part of TIF 3, which will be active until 2033.

At the committee meeting in May 2023, Belleville resident Michael Hagberg spoke against creation of a new TIF district.

“With the exception of the old Sears building behind the plaza, the plaza seems to have all its tenants in there,” he said. “The owners are out-of-state corporations. They’re collecting their rents. Let them spend their own money fixing up the property if you feel that it needs to be fixed up.”

The proposed Bellevue Plaza TIF district wouldn’t include properties across West Main Street from Save a Lot, where Bicycle World and McDonald’s closed and the former Nonna’s and Ponderosa restaurant building burned last year. They’re already in TIF 3.

In other business Monday night, the City Council:

• Granted liquor licenses to Metro East Sportsplex, Hangover Social and Aldi’s on Carlyle Avenue.
• Approved a special-use permit for outdoor dining/seating at La Guelaguetza on Carlyle Avenue.
• Rejected a development agreement that included $25,000 in TIF funds for The Harp Pub.
• Amended zoning codes to require single-family homes and apartments to be a minimum of 1,000 and 800 square feet, respectively.
• Extended a development agreement for a year with Trolley Circle Limited Partnership for a new senior-living complex.