Illinois § 18-184.10

§ 18-184.10.

Business corridors; abatement. (a) Each taxing district may, by a majority vote of its governing authority, order the county clerk to abate any portion of its taxes on property that meets the following requirements: (1) the property does not qualify as exempt property under Section 15-95 of this Code; and (2) the property is situated in a business corridor created by intergovernmental agreement between 2 adjoining disadvantaged municipalities. An abatement under this Section may not exceed a period of 10 years. (b) A business corridor created under this Section shall encompass only territory along the common border of the municipalities that is (i) undeveloped or underdeveloped and (ii) not likely to be developed without the creation of the business corridor. The intergovernmental agreement shall specify the territory to be included in the business corridor. The agreement shall also provide for the duration of an abatement under this Section and for any other provision necessary to carry out the provisions of this Section. No abatement under this Section shall exceed 10 years in duration. Upon adoption of the agreement provided for under this Section, the municipalities must deliver a certified copy of the agreement to the county clerk. (c) Before adopting an intergovernmental agreement proposing the designation of a business corridor, each municipality, by its corporate authorities, must adopt an ordinance or resolution fixing a time and place for a public hearing. At least 10 days before adopting the ordinance or resolution establishing the time and place for the public hearing, the municipality must make available for public inspection the boundaries of the proposed business corridor. At the public hearing, any interested person or affected taxing district may file with the municipal clerk written objections to the business corridor and may be heard orally with respect to any issues embodied in the notice. The municipality must hear all protests and objections at the hearing, and the hearing may be adjourned to another date without further notice other than a motion entered upon the minutes fixing the time and place of the subsequent hearing. At the public hearing or at any time before the municipality adopts an ordinance approving the intergovernmental agreement, the municipality may make changes to the boundaries of the business corridor. Changes that add additional parcels of property to the proposed business corridor may be made only after each municipality gives notice and conducts a public hearing pursuant to the procedures set forth in this Section. Except as otherwise provided in this Section, notice of the public hearing must be given by publication. Notice by publication must be given by publication at least twice. The first publication must be not more than 30 nor less than 10 days before the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation within the taxing districts having property in the proposed business corridor. The notice must include the following: (1) the time and place of the public hearing; (2) the boundaries of the proposed business corridor by legal description and by street location, if possible; (3) a statement that all interested persons will be given an opportunity to be heard at the public hearing; and (4) such other matters as the municipality may deem appropriate. (d) As used in this Section: "Disadvantaged municipality" means a municipality with (i) a per capita equalized assessed valuation (EAV) less than 60% of the State average and (ii) more than 15% of its population below the national poverty level. (Source: P.A. 97-577, eff. 1-1-12.)