Mayor Walker releases statement following meeting of Madison County Board's Grants Committee

ALTON - After Wednesday's meeting of the Madison County Board's Grants Committee, at which the Committee considered grant funding for the Community of Sunnybrook, Mayor Brant Walker released the following statement:

"Although a formal vote is not expected until Monday, July 9, 2018, the decision of the Madison County Board's Grants Committee to withhold support for expending HOME funds on the proposed Community of Sunnybrook development validates the City's decision to withdraw any and all support for this proposed development.

"The proposed Community of Sunnybrook received 45 of a possible 90 points in Madison County's scoring system. Given how this project overwhelmingly failed to meet the standards for funding from Madison County, it raises serious questions as to why the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) would award developers of the Community of Sunnybrook $1.9 million in taxpayer funded low income housing tax credits.

"Further, in recent days, Andrew Carruthers, attorney for the developers of the Community of Sunnybrook, has issued statements claiming that the developers have worked closely with city staff on this project. I must state clearly that Mr. Carruthers has not attended any meetings in my office regarding this project, and I had never met him prior to Wednesday's Grants Committee meeting. It stands to reason that if the developers, and Mr. Carruthers, were working closely with city staff that the City would not have had to obtain the developers' application to IHDA for tax credits through the Freedom of Information Act. Again, that application did not adhere to the terms of the memorandum of understanding between the City and developers.

"While the developers of this project and their supporters have chosen to stoop to the level of name calling, I, along with the six members of the City Council who signed a letter last week informing IHDA of our opposition to this project, will continue to strongly lobby the IHDA Board to reconsider, and withdraw, its award of tax credits for this proposed development.

"It has been, and will continue to be, my stated policy goal to promote the development of single­-family owner-occupied homes over subsidized, multi-family rental housing."

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