Naperville council to consider affordable housing recommendations Tuesday

With a set of action items on the table Tuesday, Naperville's elected leaders could start chipping away at a long-standing goal of increasing the city's affordable housing stock.

The city council is slated to consider two "Affordable Housing Work Plan" options based on a list of recommendations finalized last summer by the housing advisory commission.

The first would direct staff members to begin developing an inclusionary zoning ordinance, a policy that would link creation of affordable units to new market-rate residential construction. Three other potential action items could be achieved through that process, including establishing a housing trust fund, creating housing-specific city staff positions, and establishing resources to assist populations with special housing needs, according to city documents.

The second option would instead prioritize building relationships with affordable housing developers and leveraging publicly owned land to address housing challenges. Workload constraints would put those tasks on the back burner if the council opts to move forward with the inclusionary zoning ordinance, staff members said in a memo.

Plans to preserve naturally occurring affordable housing and establish a rehabilitation loan fund for low-income seniors are included in both work program options.

"I think (Tuesday's) vote is really an important first step toward addressing the city's lack of affordable housing," said Councilman Patrick Kelly, liaison to the housing advisory commission. "It's something that has been talked about in Naperville for a long time, and I think taking tangible action in a meaningful way is probably overdue."

The commission spent months exploring the issue before finalizing the eight recommendations, which derive from a consultant's report completed last March. The ideas are designed to help the city meet a state mandate on affordable housing, while also better serving seniors, young professionals, individuals with special needs and others who can't afford many of the houses in Naperville, representatives said.

Council members offered feedback during a September workshop and later approved $25,000 in the 2021 budget to hire a consultant who could help create an inclusionary zoning ordinance, said Allison Laff, deputy director of the city's transportation, engineering and development department. Staff members are seeking direction "as to final items that the work program should include," she said.

The inclusionary zoning ordinance is the most labor-intensive and controversial recommendation, which Laff said would take at least six months to draft and be reviewed through a public process. Some city officials have expressed concerns such a policy would halt development, stymie residential growth and lead to other unintended consequences.

Though "very cognizant" of their fears, Kelly said he believes the measure would have the greatest long-term impact on diversifying the city's housing stock - as long as it's done correctly.

"We really want to try to find the right balance between seeing development continue while also having a portion of that development be affordable housing," he said. "It's really going to take some time and effort and thought and care."