Rolling Meadows Affordable Housing

For the past year we have been monitoring an Affordable Housing Ad Hoc committee in Rolling Meadows. Last night they made their recommendations public. We are opposed to a few recommendations within the report. The first being a proposed $5000 fee for a teardown. The second would be mandatory set asides for new developments. I am working with the City in hopes of defeating this proposal. If you live, sell or work in Rolling Meadows and would like to be involved in this process please contact me directly.

Please find below an article from the Daily Herald on this issue. Please note: the Daily Herald writes that the city already charges a $1500 tear down fee. That is not correct. Currently NO fee is charged by Rolling Meadows on a tear down. They are proposing a $5000 fee.

By Ames Boykin
rboykin@dailyherald.com
Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Rolling Meadows is taking steps to ensure its post-World War II community stays affordable for families.
A committee formed to look at maintaining the state rules to keep towns at least 10 percent affordable returned recommendations Tuesday, including one to triple a fee for teardowns. The committee wants the city to commit to keeping its community at least 20 percent affordable.
In Rolling Meadows, 23 percent of the housing is affordable. According to the state, affordable applies to apartments renting for $775 or less, and homes or condos selling for less than $126,000.
Builders currently are charged $1,500 for teardowns, but a proposed change would increase it to $5,000. City council members will discuss the increase more next month.
When someone takes a more affordable home and replaces it with a more expensive one, 4th Ward Alderman Tom Rooney said it makes an impact. Rooney chaired the committee looking at affordable housing proposals.
Other recommendations include forcing new housing developments to include a minimum number of affordable units, and allowing more units for developments that exceed affordable housing requirements.
Aldermen will be discussing the proposals in the upcoming months to adopt an affordable housing plan in time for the new year.
Mayor Ken Nelson asked why the committee looked at maintaining a higher standard of affordable housing than the state’s 10 percent.
“This has always been a place where folks can come when they’re just starting out,” Rooney said.
All extra money from the city’s real estate transfer tax would be used for affordable housing policies, under the proposal.
Developers who would like to increase the number of units in their projects would get incentives under the plan. Should a developer build a 100-unit complex with 22 affordable units to make it 22 percent affordable, the city would let the complex build 11 more units, officials said.
While this would decrease the project’s affordable units, it would meet the city’s goal to keep 20 percent of units affordable.