Among Oak Park’s top goals is growing affordable housing opportunities. That’s why in 2019 the village board adopted an inclusionary housing ordinance.
And it’s why on Tuesday, the board reviewed staff recommendations on how to strengthen the ordinance. To do that, the board could expand the geography covered by the ordinance, offer developers additional incentives for including affordable rental units in larger projects and/or increase the fees charged to developers who would rather pay into the village’s affordable housing fund instead of building affordable units.
The staff proposal was brought to the board for discussion and direction. It led to a spirited conversation among trustees about the shared goal of adding more affordable housing options.
Trustee Cory Wesley said he thinks the current inclusionary housing ordinance is “fine” and is “working.” He said he would, however, be supportive of adding a density bonus for developers, that could allow developers to have two units at market rate for every one affordable unit built. He said he wants to incentivize developers to create more units, not make it harder for them.
“We’re breaking something that’s already working,” Wesley said. “Nobody else in the state has property values as high as ours, with a population as large as ours, with as much affordable housing as we do.”
“If we expand the geographical area of the IHO, we will reduce development incentives,” he added. “If the board’s goal is to add density to Oak Park, this will go counter to that.”
Trustee Ravi Parakkat said he’s leaning toward agreeing with Wesley in that it’s important to incentivize developers to build in Oak Park, not do the opposite.
But Trustee Susan Buchanan “vociferously” disagreed with Wesley. She said she is supportive of the staff’s recommendation, which is to emphasize the fee-in-lieu option for developers.
“This country has a desperate housing crisis,” Buchanan said. “One of the reasons is we’ve left the housing to the market. We are [a] capitalist economy. And the capitalists have failed. And the only way that they will build affordable housing is if we make them.”
Trustee Lucia Robinson said she is supportive of expanding the geographical boundaries of the ordinance but suggested creating some exemptions for the board to reach a compromise.
The existing inclusionary housing ordinance outlines requirements for developers who want to build in certain geographic areas of the village, mainly along the CTA lines and on Madison Street. The current ordinance applies to developments with 25 or more units.
The requirement in the current ordinance is for 10% of units to be affordable to those making 60% of the area median income. In lieu of that, a developer can pay $100,000 per required unit into the village’s affordable housing fund. Since the ordinance was adopted in 2019, all developers have selected the fee-in-lieu option, according to village officials.
Recommended changes to the ordinance are intended to better encourage affordable housing development in Oak Park. Options before the board included requiring developers to build affordable units without a fee-in-lieu option, increasing the fee-in-lieu contributions or staying market conservative.
Trustees discussed three options Tuesday. The village staff’s recommendation was to emphasize the fee-in-lieu option for developers. According to village officials, this option would increase the balance of the housing trust fund, expand the geographical area of the inclusionary housing ordinance to be community-wide and increase bonuses for developers providing affordable units on-site.
The disadvantages of this option, according to village officials, is that it does not require affordable units to be built by developers and imposes ordinance restrictions even in the village’s “weakest” market areas.
“Staff’s recommendation to raise the fee is in consideration of the market right now and in consideration of the input from the development community,” said Village Manager Kevin Jackson. “We think that it’s a fee that would work.”
Another option was to emphasize on-site development of affordable units. In addition to increasing the availability of affordable units, this option would also expand the geographic boundaries of the inclusionary housing ordinance, increase developer bonuses and somewhat increase the fee-in-lieu option. But requiring on-site affordable units could disincentivize some developers.
The last option was to be “market conservative.” In this option, the ordinance would include ordinance requirements only in “stronger” market areas, like downtown Oak Park. It would minimize changes for developers and slightly increase the fee-in-lieu option in one area. This option does not require units to be created on-site.
The board could also choose to create a combination of these options or stick with the status quo. Based on board input, staff will come back to the village board with an updated proposal in the future.
