Corrections added

The city of Charleston will look at becoming a home-rule community starting today.

The Home Rule Ad-Hoc Committee will meet for the first time at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in the Basement Training Room at City Hall.

Mayor John Inyart announced the members of the committee at the Feb. 19 city council meeting.

As a home-rule community, the city would have more control over the future development that is not allowed by state law.

These issues would include zoning issues and property maintenance.

The city would be able to set ordinances or guidelines that the city could not do now because of the state.

Communities in Illinois automatically become a home-rule community if they exceed a population of 25,000.

The other way to become a home-rule community is if voters approve home rule in an election.

Inyart said the committee intends to educate the city council and the city.

But he said it is not his intention to look at home rule status as a way to gain additional revenue.

If Charleston became a home-rule community, one possible option the city would consider is requiring landlords to register, so the city would know who the agent is for each property.

“It would provide for inspections,” Inyart said.

The city could inspect properties in Charleston, but it would then have to inspect every property in the city, he added.

“I don’t feel the same sense of responsibility for someone who lives in their own house,” Inyart said. “A student lives in someone else’s house and pays to live there. That person probably deserves some additional protection.”

With the 2010 census only two years away, the city could wait to see if it passes the threshold; however, Inyart does not expect the census to exceed that mark.

According to the Illinois Municipal League, there are 191 home-rule communities in Illinois.

On the agenda for the meeting will be to set a purpose of the committee. Guest speaker Jim Banovetz will also speak to the committee.

Inyart said Banovetz will speak on the process of becoming a home rule community.

Banovetz is professor emeritus at Northern Illinois University and is an authority on home rule in Illinois.

Members of the Home Rule Ad-Hoc Committee

Public:

Jim Wood

Kirsten Bays

Butch Hackett

David Bateman

Richard Wandling

Mary McShane

Pat Adair

Council and Staff:

City Manager Scott Smith

Council Member Jeff Lahr

Mayor John Inyart

City Planner Jeff Finley

Assistant City Planner Steve Pamperin

EIU Student Senate Representative:

Eric Wilber

Other communities in Illinois with home rule status:

Carbondale

DeKalb

Champaign

Urbana

Glen Ellyn

Chicago

Tinley Park

Galesburg

Rock Island

Matt Hopf can be reached at 581-7945 or at mthopf@eiu.edu.