Riverwoods attorney outlines expansive revisions to village affordable housing plan; board to hold public hearing

Village legal counsel reviewed an amended affordable housing plan and told the Board of Trustees that the village must hold a public hearing before filing an updated plan with the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

The memo and revised plan are intended to satisfy new components required under state law and must be filed by mid‑June, the attorney said. The board discussed possible timelines and tentatively identified May 20 as a likely hearing date.

“The affordable housing act … requires villages such as ours, which don’t have enough affordable housing units within the village to be exempt, to have a plan on file with the Illinois Housing Development Agency,” the village attorney said, citing the memo in the board packet. The attorney ran the board through the plan’s responses to the state’s required items and described updated exhibits and maps included in the packet.

Why this matters: the state now requires additional components in local plans; the village is currently classified as non‑exempt because its measured affordable housing share falls short of the threshold in the state’s calculation. The updated plan documents the village’s land inventory, constraints and potential incentives the village could use to encourage affordable units.

Key points from counsel’s presentation: - The state’s dataset (the attorney cited a 2023 finding) identified 1,298 housing units in the village and concluded the village would need roughly 130 affordable units to meet a 10% threshold; the attorney summarized that the report shows the village has about 20 affordable units (the transcript text: “they found that we had 20 affordable units”). - The draft plan updates three categories: sites suitable for future affordable development (including a mixed‑use possibility on the Milwaukee Avenue/Milwaukee parcel and the office‑campus properties), incentives the village could use (connection‑fee reductions, a potential affordable housing assistance fund funded by payments‑in‑lieu), and a timeline for reporting progress to the Illinois Housing Development Authority. - Constraints enumerated in the draft include woodland‑protection rules, lack of Lake Michigan water connection, floodplains and wetlands, and the limited availability of appropriately zoned or vacant parcels inside village limits.

The attorney said the updated plan also takes credit for recent village work, including adopting a planned‑development overlay and the village’s recently adopted affordable housing ordinance; the next implementation steps would include creating the affordable housing assistance fund by ordinance if the board elects to do so.

Board members asked clarifying questions about specific parcels and the mapping exhibits; the attorney invited trustees to send written comments so staff can collate revisions prior to the public hearing. The attorney said a public hearing must be held before adoption and that the board should publish notice in advance. The attorney suggested the public hearing be scheduled for the 20th of the month.

Looking ahead: Board members will submit comments to staff and the attorney, and the village will publish a hearing notice before the scheduled meeting so the amended plan can be submitted to the Illinois Housing Development Agency by the mid‑June deadline.