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TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Trevor Dick, Director of Development Strategy and Facilitation
DATE: August 4, 2020
SUBJECT:
To approve a resolution calling for a Public Hearing on August 25th, 2020 to amend and expand the River Edge Redevelopment Zone, known as the Aurora River Zone. (COA - 20-0175 / KDWK-20.032-PZ/L - TD - Ward 3)
PURPOSE:
City staff will be bringing a proposal to amend the ordinance before the BZE Committee and ultimately the City Council, but in order to actually amend the ordinance staff will need to call for a public hearing. Additional information regarding the proposed changes will be included in the proposed ordinance that will be forthcoming.
BACKGROUND:
On March 11th, 2020, City Staff first brought this request to the BZE Committee for review and discussion. At that time, the original request was to expand the RERZ to capture one key redevelopment site. Since that meeting, a number of discussions have taken place, and new information was presented to City Staff that have resulted in a much improved request to expand the RERZ to include more than one additional property. By expanding the RERZ as now proposed with a very similar boundary to the City's existing Neighborhood Redevelopment Strategy Area (NRSA) the RERZ zone would capture several key redevelopment sites on both sides of the river and in proximity to the Downtown.
December 12, 2006, the City Council of the City of Aurora approved Ordinance O06-131 entitled "An Ordinance Establishing a River Edge Redevelopment Zone (RERZ) To Be Known As the "Aurora River Zone". Aurora was the first municipality to be included as part of the state legislation enacting the River Edge Redevelopment Zone Act, Public Act 94-102. Other communities such as Elgin, Rockford and East St. Louis joined Aurora as a certified RERZ. If successful, this will be the second time that the RERZ boundary was expanded. In September 2014 (Ordinance 014-061) the City of Aurora worked with th...
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