St. Charles set to battle state over affordable housing

St. Charles aldermen want to take steps to bolster the city's stock of affordable housing. They just don't want to admit they need any more of it yet.

The city's housing and plan commissions spent much of the past year reviewing changes to the city's laws that govern affordable housing requirements imposed on new residential developments. The review, and suggested changes, came in response to state calculations indicating only about 11 percent of the city's housing is affordable, as defined by the Illinois Housing Development Authority. The 11 percent sent up a red flag. It's barely higher than the 10 percent bare-minimum the state says every community must have. Communities falling below that level are subject to become sites for state-mandated affordable housing, including federal HUD housing programs.

The 11 percent calculation also triggered an alarm bell because, until the state changed the formula for determining how much affordable housing a community has in 2013, St. Charles' own calculations indicated about 23 percent of its housing stock was affordable. The change sparked rampant skepticism about the state's formula. The formula sets an affordable single-family home price in St. Charles at about $145,000.

"All of a sudden we just lost close to 15 percent of our affordable housing?" Said Alderman William Turner. "This is absurd. You might as well say we have no affordable housing then. I don't know any where you can buy a house in St. Charles for $145,000. To me, you earn the right to live in St. Charles. It's not given to you by state mandate."

But while aldermen balked at the state's view of the city's housing stock, they liked the idea of collecting some money from new residential developments. The money would be paid to the city by developers in lieu of making a portion of their projects affordable housing. That cash would then be earmarked by the city to help finance affordable housing, such as senior living, in areas of the city hand-picked by elected officials. The money could also be used to help purchase foreclosed or vacant homes and transform them into affordable housing.

Aldermen spent much of the discussion trying to figure out how to trigger that fee from developers without acknowledging the state's 11 percent figure as fact. City staff said, even at the city's calculation of 23 percent of the housing stock being affordable, justification could be made to activate the fees. But that 23 percent was determined using the state's old affordable housing formula. With that changed, there has to be a new basis for sticking with the 23 percent figure. Aldermen sent city staff back to the drawing board to figure out a way to justify the 23 percent number. That may be a difficult task, according David Amundson, who is chairman of the city's Housing Commission.

"The state says this is the formula," Amundson said. "I don't know that there is wiggle room to not accept their numbers. I don't agree with it. But it is what it is."

There's also a question about who would be subject to the fee. Aldermen said they want to grandfather in projects, such as the Corporate Reserve, so they don't have to pay the fee. That would mean other large projects such as the pending residential developments at Pheasant Run and the Old St. Charles Mall may be in line to pay the fees.