Highwood Tracks Down Illegal Rental Units

HIGHWOOD, IL — A report on the state of rental housing in Highwood presented to the City Council Tuesday recommended downzoning residential districts and a more proactive approach to property inspections. The rental housing inventory report evaluated how the city has been administering its rental housing safety ordinance since its passage in 2004 and suggested some ways to improve it.

Most of the Highwood's rental stock consists of duplexes, and about two thirds of its homes were built before World War II, according to the report. The Bungalow style of architecture dominates many of Highwood's streets, but there are also prime examples of other popular styles like Colonial Revival, Tudor and Dutch Colonial. The lack of a zoning ordinance in the post-war period led to a "very intermingled pattern of single-family, duplexes and multi-family structures," the report said.

During the inventory of rental housing, Highwood staff found 76 properties that appeared to be being rented out without having been inspected or submitting an application to the city. Of those, 25 of the property owners joined the rental program and 29 provided an explanation for why there were no on-site rental units.

The report said city staff will begin issuing citations later this month to the other 21 property owners who have not responded to several letters asking for more information "regarding their property having evidence of being an illegal rental unit."

Owners of two properties names in the report (below) have refused to allow inspections.

The ordinance requires rental units get certified as compliant with city code and then receive annual inspections unless have received a waiver or pass inspections three years in a row. There are more than 1,100 rental units in Highwood.

Several years ago, the city did not have an inspector on staff and fell behind on conducting the checks, according to the report. However, the 237 properties inspected in 2017 represented the highest number of inspections in the 13 years of the program.

Highwood's residential zoning officer Ed Tombari told the Council Feb. 6 that he has encountered uninspected properties where renters were living in homes infested with bugs or without running water, Pioneer Press reported.

The city's current comprehensive plan calls for reducing density in residential areas while increasing it downtown. As a result, the report recommends ways to change areas currently zoned R3 for duplexes into R2 for single family homes. Existing duplexes would be allowed to stay.

Any major zoning changes "should be considered with a great deal of sensitivity" to the fact Highwood's zoning map hasn't changed since 1966, the report said.

The report also notes that changes made to downtown zoning in December 2017 to replace three business zoning districts with six mixed use districts will likely increase the number and type of residential rentals available downtown in the future.

Highwood starting assigning inspected rental units a letter grade last year in order to assess the rental stock over time. Serious visible infractions resulting in lower grades included overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, exposed wires and incandescent bulbs, non-functioning appliances, a lack of fire escapes and poorly maintained equipment, according to the report.

According to Pioneer Press, several City Council members suggested they would be interested in making public the letter grades for the condition of rental properties. Last year, according to the paper, Highwood landlords protested steep fee hikes that doubled the licensing fees for small landlords and helped pay for the increased inspections.

Read the complete report: