The Kankakee Regional Land Bank Authority (KRLBA) has been in the news recently and we wanted to add an update of sorts.

The land bank was formed in 2021 by resolutions of the City and County of Kankakee to jointly adopt an intergovernmental agreement, or IGA. Under the IGA, the members agree to share certain resources and powers to support a separate governmental entity, which is the land bank. The land bank is not a unit or department of either government. It is a wholly independent body governed by a board appointed by the members. The board themselves are volunteers.

There is no cost to participate. Each member voluntarily contributes whatever resources it wishes and most of the support accorded to the land bank is in the form of in-kind services performed by staff of the member in the normal course of their day-to-day activities.

KRLBA acquires vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties by filing abandonment petitions in court. Under state law, a property can be legally declared abandoned if the following conditions are met:

• must have at least 2 years of unpaid/delinquent property taxes
• property conditions posing a threat to health and safety are certified by a building official in an affidavit
• has no lawful occupant presently or within the last 6 months

The properties we acquire generally have been vacant for well over 3 years and have suffered from neglect and lack of upkeep. Without the land bank, they would likely remain eyesores or get demolished, since they lack for a legal owner to sell them.

KRLBA works closely with our members. We help identify properties that are suspected of being abandoned. We help gather documentation to support the affidavit that is required with our petition. We gather photographic evidence and perform public records research (taxes, liens, ownership). Our attorneys file the actual petitions on behalf of the members and represent them in court all the way through the final hearing and recording of a judicial deed granting the property to the land bank. The judicial deed clears the title and back taxes, allowing the land bank to sell the property to a buyer who will rehab the property and put it back to productive reuse. Each filing may cost the land bank $3000-8000 in legal costs, depending on the number of parties who need to be served and various other factors. Our members don’t pay those costs.

Every property we acquire is generally cleaned out, secured against unlawful entry, and is inspected as to condition. We develop scopes of work for any necessary emergency repairs and coordinate with licensed contractors who perform the work. We pay the contractors out of our own funds. We market the properties for sale and work with buyers to get properties transferred. We can transfer a property efficiently and quickly. We also monitor the properties post-sale to make sure the properties are maintained and rehabbed within 12 months. We do not allow properties to sit. Proceeds from the sales are put into additional property work. Our members don’t pay those costs, either.

In the last 2 years and in Kankakee County, the land bank identified, researched and evaluated more than 300 properties that it ultimately did NOT take action on. Most of those were in Kankakee, the only municipal member. A small portion were in unincorporated Kankakee County, since that was the only area where we had jurisdiction. Those 300 properties are still on our radar and we may come back to take action at a later date, depending on the circumstances.

The Land Bank is currently working on 90 properties. This number include properties it is working to acquire, which it currently owns, or which it is performing ongoing compliance monitoring. In the last 11 months, the land bank has spent nearly $400,000 in state grant funds on services and contractors, with all of the property contractors coming from Kankakee County. In other words, the money we raise and collect goes back into property and small businesses in the county.

Far from being a burden on local governments, the land bank is generating revenues and taxes the local governments were not able to previously collect. Our property sales in 2026 have generated nearly $200,000 of new revenue for the land bank. Today, we can announce the land bank is being awarded a new grant of nearly $200,000 to provide additional capacity to the land bank, which is simply more capacity for our members. The land bank applied for the grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago with People’s Bank of Kankakee.

Membership in the land bank is open to any municipal government whose legislative body adopts the IGA and agrees to join. The land bank itself is governed by a board of directors appointed by the members. It is not an agency or department of any member and the staff are not employees of any local government.

As always, if you are interested to learn more about what we do and how, please be in touch!