Brunswick Zone 2018-11-16 029_web
Local News

Homewood approved ordinance to amend enterprise zone

Homewood approved an intergovernmental agreement to apply for changes to the boundaries of the Cal Sag enterprise zone at its Sept. 24 village board meeting. Enterprise zones are intended to encourage private investment in economically depressed areas. Businesses located inside those areas and meeting certain criteria can be exempt from some taxes.
 

Homewood approved an intergovernmental agreement to apply for changes to the boundaries of the Cal Sag enterprise zone at its Sept. 24 village board meeting.
 
Enterprise zones are intended to encourage private investment in economically depressed areas. Businesses located inside those areas and meeting certain criteria can be exempt from some taxes.
 
  The former Brunswick Zone 
  bowling alley will be included 
  in the Cal Sag Enterprise Zone 
  when expanded boundaries go 
  into effect. The building has 
  been vacant since the bowling 
  alley closed in January 2015.

  (Chronicle file photo)
 

The Cal Sag enterprise zone includes portions of 16 towns in Cook County, including Homewood. Those municipalities proposed an amendment to the zone’s boundaries. The expansion will include the area of Calumet Country Club and commercial properties on 183rd Street and Kedzie Avenue, including the former Brunswick Zone bowling alley. 

 
Some of the incentives available to those businesses include a 0.5 percent tax credit for investors in machinery, equipment and buildings, as well as sales and utility tax exemptions. 
 
Each municipality in the enterprise zone will contribute $2,000 toward the preparation of the application for boundary changes and related documents.
 
In other business, the board passed an ordinance waiving a request for qualifications for a contract to survey the land on which Calumet Country Club is located.
 
The golf course members filed a petition in August to disconnect, or secede, from Homewood. The village is battling the club’s owners and Arizona-based real estate firm Diversified Partners, which would like to repurpose the property for a warehouse distribution facility. 
 
Homewood will survey the land to verify the legal definitions within the lawsuit. 
 
The board also approved an ordinance allowing the village to put a lien on an individual who fails to pay a fine for a code violation.
 
Previously, non-home rule towns like Homewood needed to file suit in these situations but recent state law changes have expanded their legal abilities. 
 
The ordinance allows the village to use other means to collect a debt that would include the original fine as well as attorney’s fees, court costs, property demolition and foreclosure costs. Debtors will be served a notice of a hearing and the village could impose a lien on personal property or real estate.
 
 

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