Affordable housing proposed on Quentin Road in Palatine
A Wisconsin developer wants to build a 58-unit affordable housing apartment building along North Quentin Road in Palatine.
Northpointe Development applied for preliminary planned development approval. The village's plan commission is expected to examine the request July 20.
The developer is proposing to build a three-story building with underground parking on approximately 2.5 acres along North Quentin Road, on the southwest corner with Poplar Street. The addresses for are 874-920 N. Quentin Road.
Ben Vyverberg, Palatine's director of planning and zoning, said most of the property used to be occupied by the now-closed landscaping company Mia's Garden, along with a building most recently used for office space at the corner with Poplar Street.
Estimated at $20.5 million, this would be the first in Illinois for Northpointe Development, which recently brought on board a staff member who will live and work in Illinois, company principal Andy Dumke said.
"We typically like to find locations that have some accessibility - public transportation, bicycle friendly, sidewalks - some good visibility and amenities that are nearby," he said.
The developer plans to use low-income housing tax credits, a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit available to affordable housing investments. The program is administered at the state level by the Illinois Housing Development Authority, which recently approved an allocation worth $15 million in tax credits for the proposed development in Palatine, Dumke said.
The sale of the property is contingent on plan approval from the village, he said.
The building would have 24 one-bedroom apartments at 725 square feet each, 19 two-bedrooms at 1,060 square feet, and 15 three-bedrooms at 1,326 square feet, according to the preliminary plans.
All of the apartments would be set aside for tenants whose income is between 30% and 80% of the area's median income, according to the developer's proposal.
The developer will use income limit figures from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dumke said.
The median income for a family of four in the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville metro area - which includes Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties - was $93,200 in fiscal year 2021, according to HUD. Thirty percent of that is an income limit of $27,950; 50% is an income limit of $46,600; and 80% is an income limit of $74,550, according to HUD.
A total 20 units in the proposed Palatine building - more than one-third of the total - will be reserved for tenants with incomes of more than 80% of the area median income, Dumke said. "A lot of times, when people say 'affordable housing', they mean 30%, 40% or 50% (of the area median income). By having over a third at 80% and you look at the income limits, it's really a market rate unit."
The village will carefully evaluate the plan, Vyverberg said.
"We are evaluating the land use based on what surrounds it and the impact on the surrounding property," he said.