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Daily Herald opinion: ‘Messy’ but necessary: Determined stakeholders, leaders help provide housing for a population in need

Finding a site for a supportive housing development is never easy. Perhaps it shouldn’t be. As with any apartment or townhouse project, supportive housing proposals deserve careful scrutiny, and a healthy, cooperative process helps ensure that the end result accommodates — if not necessarily fully satisfying — diverse needs involving developers, communities and, above all, clients.

Still, it is with some disappointment that we note just how hard bringing a supportive housing proposal to conclusion can be and how much courage may be required of elected officials to get there. So, we’re pleased to sense both relief and pride when municipal leaders and various stakeholders are able to reach agreement on a project that addresses a clear and present need among a disadvantaged population.

Such is the case with the Grace Terrace project approved last week by the Arlington Heights Village Board.

Grace Terrace was originally conceived nearly three years ago, and it was the spring of 2023 when village leaders got their first look at a developer’s plan for a three-story, 25-unit project for people with disabilities, with a preference for veterans. The proposal was met with immediate opposition. The intended site at 1519 S. Arlington Heights Road is sandwiched between a senior housing complex and a medical center, yet residents nearby expressed fears such a project would bring crime, declining property values and diminished privacy.

“We do not oppose helping veterans and disabled people. We are just opposing the location,” said one resident at the time, echoing almost verbatim an exhaustingly familiar cry about such projects, wherever they are proposed.

Everyone is sympathetic. Everyone acknowledges the significant need and substantial shortage of such housing. Everyone appreciates the efforts of advocates who scour communities searching for locations that hold some promise of both a dignified and comfortable living space and minimal neighborhood disruption. No one wants to be insensitive. But opponents invariably arise, unite and descend on officials to demand that the suggested proposals belong somewhere else.

So, Grace Terrace was initially greeted in November 2023 by the Arlington Heights planning commission’s 4-3 rejection of a motion to change the zoning of the proposed site from office-transitional to institutional. It would not be until 14 months later that a plan turning the project around to face Arlington Heights Road and reducing the height from three stories to two would get the village board’s approval.

Because the plan had been rejected by planning commissioners and neighbors had presented petitions opposing it, approval required a supermajority of six votes on the seven-member board. It got just that, with the lone opponent disparaging the way developers handled the process and repeating that aforementioned sentiment that it just wasn’t “the right use at the right location.”

Trustee Nicolle Grasse admitted the long period of negotiation and revision was sometimes “messy,” but she and other trustees stressed that the efforts produced an improved result.

“It took all of us as a community and village working together through the messiness of it to find a way to compromise, to find a way where everybody unfortunately had to give up something. But it’s turned into a better project,” she said.

Thankfully so. Congratulations to all those who did the hard work and made the necessary compromises. People who cannot speak for themselves and who need the compassion and support of others to survive and thrive will benefit — and, as the many other similar locations throughout the suburbs consistently demonstrate, they will be good neighbors.

It is sad that providing this opportunity often proves to be so hard. Fortunately, determined stakeholders and courageous leaders are, also often, willing to put in the effort.

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