City buys land for rail project
The city of Springfield is proceeding with land acquisition for a massive railroad relocation project despite failing to secure federal money for the next phase of a project still in its early stages.
The city council next week is expected to approve the purchase of two homes, each for slightly more than $59,000, with the money coming from motor vehicle fuel tax revenue. The properties at 1517 S. 10 ½ St. and 1015 E. Laurel St. are needed to build underpasses at Ash and Laurel streets that will eliminate streetgrade crossings.
The city wants to move trains from the Third Street corridor onto the Tenth Street corridor, a task estimated to cost at least $315 million that will take a decade or more to complete. The first phase of the project, an underpass at Carpenter Street that will connect Ninth and Eleventh streets, is scheduled for completion next year.
The federal government last month rejected the city’s application for a $16 million grant to build underpasses at Ash and Laurel streets. Mayor Jim Langfelder said that the city hopes to convince the state to come up with enough money to proceed without federal help. Continued property acquisition should help with future federal funding requests, he said.
“You keep the progress going,” Langfelder said. “It shows the state’s and the city’s commitment to Tenth Street.”
Neither of the two homes now slated for purchase is owner occupied, according to Sangamon County property records that show both homes are worth less than what the city has agreed to pay. In the case of the Laurel Street home, the city is paying $22,000 more than the fair market value as established by the supervisor of assessments; the city is paying $33,400 more than the fair market value for the other home as set by the supervisor of assessments. The city money is also covering relocation expenses for tenants.
In the case of the home on 10 ½ Street that abuts existing tracks, the owners, realizing that they would soon have to sell, have already moved out and rented the property to a relative, said Eve Blackwell- Lewis, land acquisition ombudsman assigned to help property owners and tenants get fair deals. They had spent a considerable amount on renovations that were ongoing, she said, but abandoned the project when it became clear that they wouldn’t be able to keep the home.
“That one is a two parter,” Blackwell- Lewis said. “The renter has to be placed somewhere, and the owners have to be placed somewhere.”
Blackwell-Lewis said that she expects city-funded moves to begin in about a month. Finding safe, affordable homes with enough bedrooms and bathrooms for displaced people is proving difficult, she said.
“For the most part, I think many of the people will end up in better, safer houses,” Blackwell-Lewis said. “The property values of those who are staying is dropping because there’s going to be a big wall, there’s going to be trains. It’s not pretty. Nobody wants to touch it with a ten-foot-pole.”
The overwhelming number of residential properties on the city’s acquisition list are not owner occupied. The city so far has acquired seven parcels, including three commercial properties and four parcels zoned residential. The biggest purchase, which included relocation costs, was more than $373,500 that went to Benmar, a home remodeling business that moved from Carpenter Street to West Jefferson Avenue to make way for the underpass now under construction.
All four residential properties were purchased in April from Jacob J. Noel, who lives on West Edwards Street, according to county records. All told, the city paid $60,500 for four parcels that have fair market values of nearly $49,000, according to the supervisor of assessments.
Records in the recorder’s office show that Noel in 2013 paid $4,000 for one of the homes, which had gone through foreclosure proceedings. He paid $1,250 for a second home that same year and acquired two other parcels without buildings in 2012 through tax deeds after the previous owners failed to pay property taxes.
The city treated the Noel purchases as “protective acquisitions,” according to Dennis Hollahan, a project manager with Hanson Professional Services, an engineering firm that designed the rail project and is helping the city acquire property. Noel spent “significant effort” fixing the two homes to make them habitable and was ready to sell them on the open market when he approached the city, Hollahan said in an email. After inspecting the homes to determine the extent of improvements and looking at sales of comparable properties, the city paid Noel a figure that was “in line” with comparable sales, Hollahan wrote.
“By taking these protective acquisition steps, the city was able to save the future costs of appraisals, relocations and negotiations if these properties had been sold to new private owners,” Hollahan said.
Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].
