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About Us
IRWA Illinois Chapter 12 is a chapter of the International Right of Way Association and has been serving land acquisition professionals throughout Illinois since 1955.
Our members are land acquisition professionals who work in all facets of acquisition, management and disposition of real property, and serve many sectors of industry and government, including:
- local, regional, state and national government
- public utilities
- energy
- commercial and office development
- transportation
- telecommunication
The land acquisition profession is an important one. The infrastructure associated with modern society: highways, airports, broadband fiber optic cable, skyscrapers, pipelines, just to name a few, require real property.
Explore our Web site and feel free to contact us. We want hear from you and show you how IRWA Illinois Chapter 12 can serve you. Membership provides many important benefits for land acquisition professionals.
Our History
On a vacation trip to California around 1955, Frank Kaplan, head of the Survey Division of the Cook County Highway Department, visited the California State Highway Department to investigate their operation. While there, he was introduced to Frank Balfour who was head of the California State Highway Right of Way Department and who had founded the Southern California Right of Way Agents Association in 1934. The organization evolved into the American Right of Way Association.
Upon returning, Kaplan discussed the meeting with Balfour and ARWA literature with Raymond J. Budinger, the head of the Land Procurement Division of the Cook County Highway Department who was Frank's boss. Ray Budinger was very interested. The first organizational meeting of Chapter 12 was held in Ray Budinger's office on September 29, 1955. Fourteen men attended; all enthusiastically offered their services for any job. Budinger was elected President at a subsequent meeting. On October 31, 1955, the Charter meeting for Chapter 12 was held at the Bismark Hotel in Chicago. There were thirty-eight charter members and applicants. A year later the chapter had seventy-six names.
In 1957, the Third Annual Education Seminar was hosted by Chapter 12, and in 1968, the Fourteenth National Seminar was hosted by the Chapter at the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago. Chapter 12 has always stressed the educational needs of its members. In fact, Chapter 12 was one of the first chapters to present a course on "Negotiations" in 1966.
Today, IRWA Illinois Chapter 12 has approximately 160 members, and still strives to meet the educational needs of those members.