Brookfield’s village government got credit earlier this year when it moved ahead to create its first vacant building registry. And it gets credit again for slowing down that process, listening to additional views from the Illinois Association of Realtors, and now working to amend the initial ordinance to stretch out some required timelines, lowering fees, and providing the owners of vacant single-family homes a bit more room to maneuver.

We still fully support the aim of creating a vacant building ordinance. It is a critical tool for village government to have in pressuring the owners of vacant commercial buildings to take action to keep a building from creating a blight on a commercial strip. One bad building sends a very concerning message to all around it. It steps up pressure to repair buildings, to find a new tenant or a new use, or to find a buyer better equipped to put a building to constructive use.

The ordinance also applies to multifamily and single-family homes. Again the timelines to register a building as vacant have been lengthened, the fees required to register a building have been reduced, and extensions have been reduced in number but lengthened in months.

The revised ordinance, which is likely to go to the full village board for approval later this month, also allows village staff some discretion in granting some leeway if they see sincere progress toward a solution. 

As Trustee Katie Kaluzny said in support of the revisions, thanks for “adding those extensions to account for those situations that you are never sure are going to be the case.” 

Passage of this ordinance is another sign of Brookfield’s growing confidence in its appeal as a community and in the staff it has in place to fairly enforce a new program. These late changes to the vacant building ordinance come from a place of strength by the village.

 Spooky Riverside

We’re sure Frederick Law Olmsted would approve of his namesake society’s spooky choice to create ghost walks this fall in the weeks leading up to Halloween. The society is direct in saying that it hopes to attract the interest of some tweens and teens with its ghost story-themed walk through Riverside’s winding streets.

They promise the ghost stories will be family-friendly though they recommend the event only for those 12 and up.

There will be two tours each evening of Oct. 19 and 26. 

The society expects a good response and hopes to make the ghost walks an annual tradition.