Northbrook Affordable Housing Ordinance gets first case with Willow Road proposal
Other than various iterations of it having been put before the board over the past 15 years, there was nothing extraordinary about a proposed subdivision the Northbrook Village Board considered Tuesday night.
Except what was written on page 280 of the 334-page agenda: AFFORDABLE HOUSING.
The preliminary review of Lexington Homes' 12-lot subdivision at 3000-3080 Willow Road was the first development to be considered by the board since it adopted an affordable housing ordinance Dec. 8.
Following senior planner Swati Pandey's presentation of the plan, which would place 12 single-family homes on a 5.1-acre plot east of Jasper Court, Northbrook trustee Muriel Collison acted straightaway to uphold this vision the board had worked long and hard to enact.
A key facet of the ordinance, developers of new single-family subdivisions with 6 to 19 units would need to provide affordable housing for at least 15% of those units. Or, if they didn't, developers would pay a "fee in lieu" based on 15% of the number of lots.
That fee, $125,000 per unit, would be placed in a housing trust fund established by the village to be solely used for affordable housing stock throughout Northbrook, as the agenda stated.
When Pandey noted the fee in lieu for the Willow Road proposal stood at $225,000, Collison's ears pricked up.
"Under the affordable housing plan the two units would be $250,000," Collison said, "because it's $125,000 per unit, so I just wanted to make that clarification."
So the question stood: For the Willow Road proposal, that 15% of lots stood at 1.8. Was that fraction rounded up to 2 affordable housing units, or its equivalent?
Michaela Kohlstedt, Development & Planning Services deputy director, weighed in.
The fee is $125,000 plus a fraction amount "which resulted in the number total that Swati quoted for the payment fee in lieu," she said.
"We'll make sure it's the correct payment," Kohlstedt said.
"That's all I care about," Collison said.
Of course, trustees had other considerations, Collison included.
Things like a sidewalk on only one side of the street, and the acceptance of a proposed private road. The plan would require annexation of two properties under the Willow Road Corridor Arrangement with Glenview. There were concerns about a sufficient buffer between the new subdivision and existing homes.
And, returning to the earlier point, trustee Dan Pepoon sought clarity on the status of rounding up affordable units or fees.
"To me, this is an important component of helping continue to fund our affordable housing trust fund," he said.
However, after several prior development plans either went nowhere or were nixed due to density, trustees were generally pleased with what they saw.
This test case moved on.
"On to the Plan Commission, and I think that's about as positive a review as we've given to the developer on this site," said board President Sandy Frum.