The Naperville City Council will consider an ordinance at its Tuesday meeting that would establish incentives for expanding Naperville’s stock of affordable housing.
The proposal would add a chapter to the city’s zoning code laying out the parameters of a new affordable housing incentive program. Only going before the council for a first reading Tuesday, the ordinance will need to return to council at a later date for formal adoption, according to city staff.
Should council members OK the code amendment, it would go into effect upon passage, says Allison Laff, deputy director of Naperville’s Transportation, Engineering and Development department.
Devised to entice developers to supply the city with more units will a lower lease or purchase price, proposed incentive language offers a series of allowances developers would be allotted for a new project as long as they meet certain affordability requirements.
A qualified project would be one that provides at least 20% of its units as affordable, Laff said. That earns developers the baseline of offered incentives, she said. The more affordable a project is, the more incentives it will be allowed. Developers will get to pick which incentives they’re interested in using, Laff said.
Incentives include a choice of reductions to yard setbacks, parking for rental units, required masonry materials and outdoor commons spaces. The menu of options also includes flexibility with building height limits and a reduction in entitlement and permitting fees.
As part of the incentive program, any participating developer would have to enter into an affordable housing agreement with the city that will place obligations on owners in exchange for the incentives and benefits they are receiving. Among obligations is a stipulation that owners must agree to set aside a minimum number of affordable units for low- or moderate-income households for at least 30 years.
“I think the hope is that developers will find (incentives) enticing enough that they would want to use this (program) voluntarily for their residential developments, which would then have the impact of creating new affordable units for people to either purchase or rent,” Laff said.
Trading incentives for affordable housing is an idea years in the making.
In 2019, the city hired Chicago-based consultant SB Friedman to conduct a Housing Needs Assessment to analyze Naperville’s existing housing stock. They found what the city had to offer wasn’t meeting a segment of the populations’ needs due to a lack of lower-cost options.
To tackle Naperville’s housing problems, Friedman in fall 2020 presented the city with a list of policy options it could implement. In response, elected officials adopted a multiyear work program prioritizing Friedman’s recommendations.
Creating an incentive program is one facet of that multiyear plan. It’s been in the works for nearly two years now.
The council initially agreed to establish the program in January 2023. Since then, staff have been fleshing out an ordinance to formally adopt the program, Laff said. Asked what prolonged drafting the ordinance, Laff said there were “just other competing priorities” that staff had to tackle first.
Laff reiterated that the incentive program, should it be approved, is just one of “various approaches (the city is taking) to try and address the affordable housing issue in Naperville.”
For example, Laff pointed to Tower Court Residences, a development that stands to offer affordable housing for seniors and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Naperville’s South 40 Lots over the next few years.
“We’ve always presented this as a multifaceted approach that wouldn’t be one item,” Laff said.
