As a former resident of Oak Park (for 62 years), I have been avidly following the debate on the proposed zoning changes. I read an article in the Aug. 9 edition of the Tribune about an auction in Elk Grove Village for the chance to buy one of 20 homes at below market value. Perhaps Oak Park should consider a less radical approach to affordable housing than the zoning changes currently on the table. Why not take a leaf from Elk Grove’s book and try the same approach?
The only challenge I’d see to such a plan is how the new owners would be able to afford Oak Park’s rather high property taxes once they moved in. I don’t have a good answer for that problem. However, perhaps some kind of tax subsidy could be made available for a period of, say, five years to ease the burden.
I think that blaming single-family housing for the lack of diversity (by way of lack of affordable housing) is an overly simplistic view of the issue. Regardless of how many multifamily properties you add to the housing stock, Oak Park’s property taxes are simply too high for many middle-class and lower-middle-class families to be able to afford — whether they own a single-family home or a multifamily unit in Oak Park. Landlords have to pass along the cost of high property taxes to their tenants in the form of high rents that, again, may not be manageable to those seeking affordable rentals.
Developers are out to make money. How many are willing to build affordable housing? If we increase the housing stock in Oak Park by “dezoning,” who is to say that all or indeed any of those multifamily buildings, be they condos or rental units, will be affordable?
Possibly we may just succeed in significantly increasing the density of Oak Park without making it any more affordable for the very people we’re seeking to bring into the village.
Louise Mezzatesta
River Forest (formerly Oak Park)