St. Charles See Surge in Affordable Housing

St. Charles has 2½ times more inventory of affordable housing than it is required to have under a state mandate.

Aldermen on Monday night, meeting as the St. Charles City Council Planning and Development Committee, heard details about the 2013 St. Charles Housing Market Affordability Analysis.

City Planner Matt O'Rourke told aldermen that city’s stock of affordable housing — in the Chicago region, a home is considered affordable if it has a price of $184,300 — has risen from 18 percent of the city’s homes in 2012 to 25.56  percent this year.

Aldermen voted unanimously to accept the report.

Cities and towns are required to take steps to help ensure that at least 10 percent of the homes in their community are affordable, based on various wage and income guidelines.

The requirement has communities struggling to strike a balance — for example, by requiring developments to include affordable homes or apartments as a condition of their new developments. St. Charles’ effort in that regard included the adoption in 2008 of the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. The city’s ordinance is linked to the percentage of affordable housing.

As part of the effort to strike a balance between adequate affordable housing and a glut, O’Rourke said the city’s ordinance has triggers, and the latest percentage trips one of those: Under the ordinance, if the percentage of affordable housing in St. Charles rises above 25 percent, the community development director is authorized to stop requiring developers to build affordable housing. The requirement would not have to be imposed again until the city’s affordable housing stock drops below 15 percent.

Related

• June 14, 2012: City Takes Snapshot of Affordable Housing