Housing Diversity Plan Resurrected

After five years of inactivity, Winnetka's affordable housing plan is gathering momentum again. The strategy is to bring diversity to Winnetka by creating and preserving affordable housing stock.

"There is a lack of diversity in Winnetka," said Louise Holland, a Landmark Preservation Committee representative. "There is a lack of intent to bringing more diverse people to this community. That's what affordable housing is all about. I don't want more people like me."

As more local employees, such as public school teachers, cannot afford to live in the community where they work, Winnetka is looking for options.

Based on a recommendation from the Plan Commission, the Village Board named affordable housing one of three priorities for the village's 2020 comprehensive plan during Tuesday night's study session.

Winnetka's Plan Commission is tasked with transforming a 30-page document into a working strategy for mid-priced multifamily units, bungalows, coach houses and apartments.

In 2007, the Plan Commission ordered an in-depth study by the University of Illinois-Chicago's Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement to help it identify affordable housing needs in the community and learn how to create that stock. Due to turnover, the board sat on the information for more than two years but has gotten back to work on the project at the council's urging.

The Voorhees findings initially disturbed the board. Winnetka has lost about 30 rental housing units annually, which have been replaced by gleaming million-dollar "McMansions." As a result, senior citizens have flocked to neighboring communities such as Lake Forest and Highland Park. Those municipalities have successfully revitalized their affordable housing plans within the past few years and now serve as standards for neighboring Chicagoland villages to follow.

At the Plan Commission meeting in late August, chairwoman Becky Hurly stood before three easels holding oversized white pads. This was part of an exercise to visualize who needs affordable housing in Winnetka and what the village must do to provide it. But before Hurly's fat black marker could touch paper, members argued over where to begin.

"Do you start with housing because that's what you have or people who need homes?" asked Susan Whitcomb, school board representative to the commission.

"What do we want? What do we need? How can we obtain it?" asked Mark Kurensky, board member at-large.

Based on the data from the consultant report, the average sale price for a home in Winnetka was $1.6 million, an increase of nearly 156 percent since 1994. The median rent in 2000 rose 52 percent, from $681 to $1,038. And seniors have remained at a steady 12-13 percent of the population over the last 10 years while their population has increased in neighboring communities.

"The reverse commute is what has happened," said Holland.

Holland noted that over the years, many of Winnetka's employees have elected to live elsewhere. At New Trier Township High School's Winnetka campus, for example, only 13 teachers and administrators and eight staff members live in Winnetka, totaling 3 percent of the district's workforce, according to Donald Goers, associate superintendent of school District 203. (This figure was based on regular staff counts and does not include substitutes or temporary employees.)

As members tossed around hypotheticals and uncertainties, Hurly reminded the board that it had not been charged to reinvent the wheel.

Yet Gail Schechter, executive director of Winnetka-based Interfaith Housing Center, thinks that there's a bit of wheel-invention going on. She said perhaps it has prohibited the commission from expediting the new plan.

While the commission and the council have asserted time and again that they already have an affordable housing plan, Schechter says the current one isn't concrete enough to serve anyone.

"The commission, they're wonderful and well-meaning," she said. "But I do think there is a fear among the members of the commission that the people in the village are not going to go for this. There are fears about affordable housing."

Schechter, whose nonprofit is a housing advocate, said she is working with various clergy, such as Jenny Gleichauf of Winnetka Congregational Church and Rabbi Bruce Elder of Congregation Hakafa in Glencoe, to identify specific people who cannot afford to live in the village but want to--people who could benefit from affordable housing. She said they are also planning to talk to their congregations to dissipate fears residents might have about introducing "unknowns" into their neighborhood.

"I was thrilled when Winnetka even decided to do this," Schechter said. "The best affordable housing tool for any village really is a plan."

Brian Norkus, assistant director of community development for the village, believes the plan will finally take off on account of one of its stronger tools: inclusionary zone. He also says the village is focusing its efforts on including affordable housing with the existing business district to create multiple family units and preserve rental properties for people with modest incomes.

Norkus said the strategy would also lap with other village goals: to create more activity within its business district.

"The Plan Commission does very much want to wrap this up," he said.

Norkus also said affordable housing is not a new concept in Winnetka. As a teenager in the 1970s, he said he often heard about the need to create a comprehensive plan to allow "shopkeepers and teachers and empty nesters" to live in the village.

"This will give us the ability to let seniors stay and age in the community they've dedicated their lives to," Norkus said. "They've set down roots in this town. I'd like to be able to age in a community where I've established roots. I can only imagine moving from a community like Winnetka."

Village Trustee Christopher Rintz said the Plan Commission might have a more finalized plan to present at the Village Council meeting on Sept. 21.