West Cook News

At the March 14 Berwyn City Council meeting, officials were presented with an ordinance pertaining to vacant properties in the city. 

Marcos Martinez from the Berwyn Development Corporation explained that in 2020 there was a code amendment that required commercial properties to be registered with the city, and the corporation was tasked with enforcing and managing that program. Over the past couple of years the company has been been attempting to track down and register all the vacant properties in town, and in doing so they've made updates to the code to allow for greater efficiency in the program and streamline the registration process for property owners.

"Marcos and the staff worked very hard on the ordinance. They've met with us several times," Berwyn mayor Robert Lovero said. "We made a couple of minor changes, but I think what they put together has been tremendous. It's going to help us jump on these vacant properties, whereas while we've had an ordinance, we have been able to jump on it. Once we turn it over to them, they acted swiftly to put something in place so that we're able to get on this so."

After analyzing the program, the main changes include contacting owners of vacant properties after 90 days of vacancy instead of just 14, doing just exterior inspections of properties instead of requesting interior access and only conducting an interior inspection if the exterior inspection showed something that warranted further investigation. Property owners will be charged $300 to conduct interior inspections to determine the extent of hazards. The program also has a $300 registration fee, which covers the registration and exterior inspection. These steps should also help ensure that the correct property owner have been contacted, and that there aren’t any other outstanding fees or payments that need to be made before they are registered.

There are penalties for not registering within the time window and failing to have inspections done. Once property owners are registered, the development corporation can help owners redevelop and improve their property through information and resources, and connect them with potential buyers. These changes simplify the process for owners, making them jump through fewer hoops to get access assistance from the corporation.

After the discussion, the council approved the ordinance.