DevCorp. May Widen Scope
Contacting Businesses About Expanding to Cicero Avenue
The Greater Southwest Development Corp. has begun looking into the possibility of enlarging the Special Service Area it administers on 63rd Street.
“We’re conducting research and collecting data now. We will be talking to the businesses and lease holders to see if it is viable,” said Lenora Dailey, deputy director of industrial and commercial services for DevCorp., a non-profit neighborhood redevelopment organization based at 2601 W. 63rd St.
“We’re doing it at the request of the alderman, (Ald. Frank Olivo [13th]), said Dailey, explaining that the idea would be to expand the existing SSA known as the 63rd Street Growth Commission as far west as Cicero Avenue.
Currently, the SSA stretches from Oakley Avenue west to Central Park, and takes in a piece of Western Avenue between 60th and 64th streets, and Kedzie Avenue between 62nd and 64th streets.
Created in 1984 through a partnership between DevCorp and the Chicago Lawn and Marquette Manor chambers of commerce, the 63rd Street Growth Commission was one of the first SSAs in Chicago, which now has more than 30 citywide.
SSAs are funding tools the city uses to provide a variety of services, and are financed by special property tax levies.
Dailey said that the preliminary work DevCorp is doing to research the expansion will likely last through the summer.
“They have a lot of viable businesses along there (between Central Park and Cicero Avenue),” Dailey said.
She acknowledged that any expansion would mean a slight tax increase for the businesses included within the new boundaries, but said “it would be well worth it.”
She pointed out that since the Growth Commission funds a wide range of projects, including everything from regular sidewalk-cleaning and graffiti removal, to business networking events and workshops, and the advertising and promotion of local businesses.
The commission is perhaps best-known for the 63rd Street Holiday Parade it has been sponsoring for more than 20 years. Held the first Saturday of December, it regularly attracts more than 25,000 spectators.
Other promotions include the Holiday Parade Poster Contest, summer street fairs, seasonal and event banners, and a neighborhood guidebook. The Growth Commission also helps individual businesses market and promote themselves.
“Member businesses have access to a Web site where they can advertise their services and post coupons and everything,” said Dailey.
Some observers have suggested that the SSA expansion could be seen as an attempt to sideline the West Lawn Chamber of Commerce, which now serves the area of 63rd Street between Central Park and Cicero.
“We don’t see it like that,” said Dailey. “We have worked with the West Lawn Chamber on a number of projects and this would just be one more.”
After being told of the possible SSA expansion, Mark Walden, the executive director of the West Lawn Chamber of Commerce, made calls to DevCorp and Olivo’s office seeking more information. He said he was not in a position to comment before finding out more about it.
Opponents of SSAs say chambers of commerce are fairer because they are membership-based and their funding is given voluntarily, while property owners within SSAs are obligated by law to pay the property tax levies.
However, others say that SSAs are needed to supply a dependable source of funding for ongoing neighborhood improvement projects, such as street-cleaning and other programs.
Olivo mentioned his support for the SSA expansion during remarks he gave at another networking event that DevCorp held last week at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture.
“I am 100 percent behind it,” said Olivo, who praised Greater Southwest for the many local development projects it has spearheaded over the years.
“It is always doing good things for the area. And it doesn’t charge dues,” said the alderman.