The Illinois Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act
In 2003, BPI led the effort that resulted in enactment of a landmark Illinois law, the Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act. The law requires all municipalities across the state with less than 10 percent affordable housing (including 49 affluent suburbs) to develop and implement plans to ensure that at least 10 percent of their housing is affordable. The law is an effort to address the barriers that prevent the market from creating an adequate supply of affordable housing, especially in job-rich areas. To pass the law, BPI helped build a coalition of housing advocates, community and faith-based organizations, organized labor and housing developers.
“Housing Appeals” laws, or override statutes, are effective tools used by several states to tackle exclusionary zoning and unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles that discourage affordable housing development. These laws make it easier to build affordable homes in communities that have little or no affordable housing. While the laws vary, the core concept of a Housing Appeals law is to provide builders or developers of affordable housing a streamlined permitting process with flexible zoning at the local level and an opportunity to appeal a local zoning board’s permit denial. These statutes generally require local interests to be balanced against larger needs for affordable housing. Most importantly, these laws shift the burden of persuasion from the developer to the local municipality to justify its decision to deny a project that contains affordable housing.
To date, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island have established Housing Appeals statutes.
Major Components of the Housing Appeals Law in Illinois:
The Illinois law has two major components:
- It requires communities with less than 10% affordable housing to adopt an affordable housing plan.
- It creates a State Housing Appeals Board that beginning in 2009 may review and, in some situations overturn, local government decisions to either deny proposals to build affordable housing, or approve proposals but only with restrictive conditions attached. The appeals process will be available to developers who propose plans with at least 20% affordable housing.
The Illinois Housing Development Authority determined that 49 municipalities in the state have less than 10% affordable housing and are therefore not exempt from the law.
These communities were required to approve local Affordable Housing Plans by April 1, 2005. Plans were required to contain one of three very specific goals for increasing the stock of affordable housing in a community:
- A minimum of 15% of all new development or redevelopment must be affordable
- The community will increase its overall percentage of affordable housing by three percentage points
- The community will increase its overall percentage of affordable housing to 10% of the total housing stock
In 2009, A State Housing Appeals Board will be empowered to review developers’ appeals of certain local government decisions affecting proposed affordable housing developments. Communities with 10% or more affordable housing or communities that have met the goal outlined in their plan are NOT subject to the authority of the Appeals Board.
This balanced board includes governor-appointed representatives of local government, zoning boards of appeals, plan commissions, developers, and housing advocates. The board will be chaired by a retired judge.
In 2005, the law was clarified and strengthened. To encourage development of creative solutions to the affordable housing crisis, the law now allows communities to enter into intergovernmental agreements to produce affordable housing with other municipalities or counties with less than 25% affordable housing and within 10 miles of their corporate boundaries. Together, these municipalities and/or counties can work to meet the requirements of the law. For example, one municipality can provide land and another funding to develop affordable housing. Then, when determining whether they have reached the 10% affordable housing requirement, the municipalities can divide the credit for the units produced through an intergovernmental agreement.
The law also gives communities new powers to develop and preserve affordable housing. Under the law, all Illinois communities can now create Community Land Trusts and Housing Trust Funds, use local zoning powers to create affordable housing, and accept donations of money or land to address affordable housing needs.
The Illinois Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act will produce housing for working families. To meet the laws requirements, for-sale housing must be affordable to households making below 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), and rental housing must be affordable to households earning less than 60% AMI. These 2006 income levels for a family of four are listed below for key parts of the state:
| |
80% AMI |
60% AMI |
| Chicago Metropolitan Area |
$59,600 |
$45,240 |
| Bloomington/Normal |
$58,800 |
$44,100 |
| Peoria-Pekin |
$49,900 |
$37,440 |
| Rockford |
$50,900 |
$38,160 |
| Springfield |
$51,900 |
$38,940 |
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