Wilmette aims to increase affordable housing to meet state law

Wilmette could add more than 500 homes with an “affordable” designation if the Village’s Affordable Housing Plan updates are passed.

The proposed changes were presented to the Wilmette Village Board at its regular meeting on Tuesday, May 28. No vote was taken, but a public hearing and vote are expected at the June 10 regular meeting.

Lisa Roberts, Wilmette’s deputy director of community development, explained that Wilmette has had an affordable housing plan since 2005, two years after the state passed the Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act. That law requires all municipalities with at least 1,000 residents to have 10% of their housing units classified as “affordable.”

Wilmette’s current housing plan has a goal of creating 15% of new residential construction or redevelopment with the affordable designation.

But Roberts said that in December 2023 the Illinois Housing Development Authority notified the village that only 4.8% of its housing units are “affordable” and is requiring Wilmette to adopt a new housing plan, which prompted the update.

Only 501 of Wilmette’s 10,331 housing units are considered affordable, said Roberts, and Wilmette must add 532 more affordable units to meet the 10% threshold.

Wilmette’s plan also must identify potential areas for redevelopment, and Roberts said Wilmette’s plan has identified 16 potential sites for affordable housing, including: Sunrise Memory Care on Ridge Road, the Sisters of Christian Charity convent on Elmwood, the Hoffman-Higgins Homestead at the south end of Ridge, Scott Funeral Home in the Village Center, and the former Mid-Central Printing site.

She also noted that some of those sites are more feasible than others, adding that the plan requires the village to list constraining factors.

Roberts said a major obstacle is that Wilmette does not offer much open land.

“It’s a built-out community,” she said. “There’s just not a lot of property available for redevelopment that can include affordable housing.”

She went on to add that the village is still hoping to classify 15% of new multi-family and mixed-use developments as affordable.

Roberts went on to say that the state requires that the village begin implementation of the affordable housing plan within 24 months. She said the village is currently in the process of updating its overall housing plan as well and will work on implementing both the affordable and broad housing plans concurrently.

Village Manager Mike Braiman said this is the “very beginning of the village’s efforts” to address affordable housing.

“Consider this the starting point and not the ending point,” he said.

Village President Senta Plunkett said the proposed updates have “so many layers” to them.

“It’s so much broader than the state definition of affordable housing,” she said. “We need to talk about how we keep the affordable housing that we have that is attainable. … Does it meet the state definition of affordable? How do we keep that affordable?”

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