As one of the wealthiest communities in Illinois, many
are surprised to learn that over the last three years, Lake Forest has quietly
passed a series of innovative housing policies to institutionalize the
development of mixed-income housing in the city. With the adoption of a
comprehensive housing
plan in 2005, Lake Forest set the stage to
phase in a number of local and regional housing initiatives that will help to
ensure local workers and seniors can continue to live the city. After adopting
the affordable housing plan, the city established an Ad Hoc Housing Committee
that led the charge in establishing the following policies:
- Inclusionary
Zoning
(2005): Requires 15 percent of the homes in all residential developments of
over five units be affordable to households earning 80 percent or below the
Area Median Income ($59,600 for a family of four in 2007). As part of the
ordinance, there are alternative options for developers to build off-site or
pay a fee in-lieu of building all of the required homes on site.
- Housing
Trust Fund
(2006): Provides financial resources to address the housing needs of
individuals and families of low and moderate-income by promoting, preserving,
and producing long-term affordable housing; providing housing-related
services; and, providing support for not-for-profit organizations that
actively address the city’s affordable housing needs.
- Demolition
Tax (2006): Assesses a $10,000 tax for the demolition of
single and two-family homes and $5,000 per unit for multi-unit buildings,
which is allocated directly to the Lake Forest Housing Trust Fund.
In 2007, the City of Lake Forest engaged the
Metropolitan Planning Council’s Community
Building Initiative to help the city define its
role in the regionally significant redevelopment of the former Barat College
Campus, the first residential development subject to the city’s new inclusionary
zoning ordinance. A complex project, the 23-acre, approximately120-unit Barat
redevelopment will include not only mixed-income housing, but historic
preservation and environmental protection components as well. To guide this
effort, MPC recruited a task force
of experts, chaired by Nicholas Brunick of
Applegate and Thorne-Thomsen, P.C. to provide advice about successfully
integrating affordable and moderately-priced homes into this luxury development;
creating a greater range of housing price points on-site; supplemental financing
options; and, appropriate roles for the developer, city, and potential
non-profit service and development partners.
Some of the Metropolitan
Planning Council’s Lake Forest Task Force
recommendations included:
- Close the price gap between inclusionary homes and
high-end market-rate units through increased density, a variety of housing
types on site, and changes to some of the more expensive design elements, such
as one elevator per townhome
- Work with the Illinois Housing Development Authority
to utilize the state donation’s tax credit as a way to maximize the value of
the development through a transfer of those credits from the developer to the
city’s housing trust fund
- Institute an association structure that protects
affordable homeowners from being overburdened by assessments and work with the
local township to assess the affordable properties at a lower rate
- Work with local employers to invest directly in the
development and provide assistance to their employees to purchase some of the
moderately-priced and affordable homes.
- Institute
processes and partnerships to monitor the affordability and tenant
selection.
The redevelopment of the Barat
campus site will be the largest that
Lake Forest
has seen and will see in a while.
Ensuring that this property has a healthy mix of high-end, moderately-priced,
and affordable homes will be president setting for not only the city, but also
for other North shore communities and the region.
Due to these new housing policies
and the regional significance of this site,
Lake
Forest
, boasting the fourth highest family income in
Illinois
, has now emerged
as an affordable housing leader.
In
June, Mayor Michael Rummel joined four neighboring communities - Highland Park,
Highwood, Deerfield, and Northbrook - to engage North shore employers in both
helping meet the demand for workforce housing through employer-assisted housing
and contributing to increasing the supply of affordable homes through
public-private partnerships and direct investment in housing development. In
addition, Mayor Rummel spoke to a national audience in August at an event
organized by the National Housing Conference to discuss the vital links between
affordable housing development and transportation access.
As more and more communities throughout the
region begin to grapple with complex affordable housing challenges, it is nice to
know that even the wealthiest communities recognize that a diverse housing stock is essential to a
balanced, healthy, and economically strong region.
