City officials hope a new ordinance partnering with the Cook County Land Bank Authority will help speed efforts to rehab long-vacant and neglected properties. [Eric Allix Rogers on Flickr]

Chicago housing and planning officials are asking the City Council to sign off on a plan that would let them snag long-neglected properties off the Cook County tax rolls so they can turn the lots over to rehabbers. They say the ordinance is part of a longer-running effort to lure residential investors back to neighborhoods long plagued by blight.