Illinois § 11-74.3-1

§ 11-74.3-1.

Division short title; declaration of public purpose. This Division 74.3 may be cited as the Business District Development and Redevelopment Law. It is hereby found and declared: (1) It is essential to the economic and social welfare of each municipality that business districts be developed, redeveloped, improved, maintained, and revitalized, that jobs and opportunity for employment be created within the municipality, and that, if blighting conditions are present, blighting conditions be eradicated by assuring opportunities for development or redevelopment, encouraging private investment, and attracting sound and stable business and commercial growth. It is further found and determined that as a result of economic conditions unfavorable to the creation, development, improvement, maintenance, and redevelopment of certain business and commercial areas within municipalities opportunities for private investment and sound and stable commercial growth have been and will continue to be negatively impacted and business and commercial areas within many municipalities have deteriorated and will continue to deteriorate, thereby causing a serious menace to the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the people of the entire State, unemployment, a decline in tax revenues, excessive and disproportionate expenditure of public funds, inadequate public and private investment, the unmarketability of property, and the growth of delinquencies and crime. In order to reduce threats to and to promote and protect the health, safety, morals, and welfare of the public and to provide incentives which will create employment and job opportunities, will retain commercial businesses in the State and related job opportunities and will eradicate blighting conditions if blighting conditions are present, and for the relief of unemployment and the maintenance of existing levels of employment, it is essential that plans for business districts be created and implemented and that business districts be created, developed, improved, maintained, and redeveloped. (2) The creation, development, improvement, maintenance, and redevelopment of business districts will stimulate economic activity in the State, create and maintain jobs, increase tax revenues, encourage the creation of new and lasting infrastructure, other improvements, and facilities, and cause the attraction and retention of businesses and commercial enterprises which generate economic activity and services and increase the general tax base, including, but not limited to, increased retail sales, hotel or restaurant sales, manufacturing sales, or entertainment industry sales, thereby increasing employment and economic growth. (3) It is hereby declared to be the policy of the State, in the interest of promoting the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of all the people of the State, to provide incentives which will create new job opportunities and retain existing commercial businesses within the State and related job opportunities, and it is further determined and declared that the relief of conditions of unemployment, the maintenance of existing levels of employment, the creation of new job opportunities, the retention of existing commercial businesses, the increase of industry and commerce within the State, the reduction of the evils attendant upon unemployment, and the increase and maintenance of the tax base of the State and its political subdivisions are public purposes and for the public safety, benefit, and welfare of the residents of this State. (4) The exercise of the powers provided in this Law is dedicated to the promotion of the public interest, to the enhancement of the tax base within business districts, municipalities, and the State and its political subdivisions, the creation of employment, and the eradication of blight, if present within the business district, and the use of such powers for the creation, development, improvement, maintenance, and redevelopment of business districts of a municipality is hereby declared to be for the public safety, benefit, and welfare of the residents of the State and essential to the public interest and declared to be for public purposes. (Source: P.A. 96-1394, eff. 7-29-10.)