When Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker proposed sweeping statewide housing measures that could bypass local zoning policies earlier this year, the Illinois Municipal League balked.
“This is a broad preemption of authority on an issue that is entirely local,” IML CEO Brad Cole said in response to the governor’s proposal in February. “Zoning and land use decisions are best made locally by the leaders elected in those communities.”
IML this spring issued a counter proposal to Pritzker’s that offers localities property tax relief and other tools to boost housing affordability while maintaining local government authority, according to Cole. The measure is “the kind of practical, results-driven approach that comes from working with municipalities, not against them,” Cole said in the April 30 proposal.
Now, another coalition of Illinois localities is reporting on the progress local governments are making toward increasing housing affordability and production without state zoning intervention, and is creating a resource for other municipalities to use.
The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, which represents 275 Illinois municipalities, released its Home Grown: Local Strategies In Action report on May 7, featuring more than 70 case studies of successful housing policies and projects spearheaded by local governments throughout the state.
Examples range from a community land trust program in Lake County that has led to more than 100 affordable homes in Lake and northern Cook County; an adaptive reuse project that turned a former school ground into apartments in Aurora; and a “missing middle” housing zoning and development program in Champaign that has produced 229 units across eight new middle-scale housing developments since 2018.
“Home Grown reflects the power of local innovation,” stated Village of Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson, who chairs the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus’ Housing and Community Development Committee. “When we share what’s working across our region, we empower municipalities to respond to housing challenges with solutions that are not only practical, but rooted in the real needs of the people we serve.”
Illinois is short 142,000 homes, a University of Illinois and Illinois Economic Policy Institute study found last year. It needs to build 227,000 units over the next five years to keep up with current demand.
Pritzker, in his State of the State address, said statewide zoning would make housing production “easier, faster and more cost-effective.”
As cities attempt to manage an affordable housing shortage that spans the country, more states are stepping into the fray and, at times, testing municipal control over zoning. State leaders in Oregon, New Jersey and Colorado are all in the midst of testing those boundaries.
