On June 19, 2012, a public workshop is scheduled to inform the public and to seek community input concerning the future of residential needs and opportunities in the Village of Arlington Heights. Through a technical assistance grant from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), the Village of Arlington Heights, along with the four adjacent northwest suburbs of Buffalo Grove, Mount Prospect, Palatine, and Rolling Meadows is the subject of a CMAP “Homes for a Changing Region” study.
The CMAP study will assess future supply and demand trends for housing in our community and subregion. It will also develop long term housing policy plans to create a balanced mix of housing and to enhance livability.
The public workshop will involve an interactive process through which residents may weigh in and create strategies and a vision for housing in Arlington Heights.
It is unclear when the inevitable housing market recovery will happen and what it will look like. The timing of a recovery will largely depend on when demand for homeownership returns, which could be triggered by an uptick in first-time buyers or household growth. However, in the near term, rental housing is likely to be the key growth sector. It is clear that the strength of the recovery will depend largely on how fully employment bounces back to pre- recession standards.
So, the question becomes, “What role should forward- looking housing planning take given the shock that regional housing markets have experienced over the last four years?” With so many homes caught in the foreclosure crisis and new construction near an all-time low, why bother to plan for future housing development?
First, as daunting as it now appears to be, the current wave of foreclosures will subside and, over a period of years, foreclosed homes will either be reoccupied or torn down.
Second, the demographic trends we first described in our first Homes for a Changing Region report will come to pass and create demand for new housing. Population in the seven county Chicago metropolitan region will increase from 8.5 to 10.9 million by 2040. The senior population will more than double to 1.9 million; the Latino population will increase by almost 150%, reaching 3.5 million.
Third, and perhaps most important, well thought through housing planning on a community-by-community basis can avoid the mistakes that contributed significantly to the current housing crisis, mistakes which included:
• Not preserving enough moderately priced dwelling units, be they small sized homes, town homes or attached homes, especially in the region’s higher job growth communities. In today’s housing market “moderately priced” equates to homes priced between $140,000 and $200,000.
• Encouraging and permitting the construction of too many large lot single-family homes and discouraging the construction of small lot single-family homes, townhomes, and attached homes.
• Not creating housing options for multi-generational families that want to live together and seniors who want to age in place.
• Allowing too many multi-family rental units to be converted into condominiums.
— CMAP Homes for a Changing Region, Phase 3: Implenting Balanced Housing Plans at the Local Level, Year Five: Bellwood, Berwyn, Forest Park, Maywood, and Oak Park
Homes for a Changing Region includes the following components:
Analysis of each community’s existing housing supply that compares the type and price of housing stock to the age, income, and tenure (rental or owner-occupied) of the population.
A subregional housing analysis that identifies opportunities and gaps in the housing profile and looks for opportunities for collaboration between neighboring communities.
A workforce housing analysis that focuses on the match between the sub-region’s key employment sectors and the existing housing stock.
A market segmentation analysis that uses industry standard data to separate each community’s housing markets into key household types. Our recommendations will focus on meeting the current and future needs of each segment, along with strategies for attracting targeted segments.
Design, planning, and facilitation of one public workshop for each community.
A series of policy and strategic recommendations for creating a balanced, sustainable future housing supply, along with targeted goals that can be used to determine a community’s future progress in implementing the plan.
Design visualizations for a focus area in each community.
The current public workshops for participants in the Northwest Suburban Housing Collaborative are the following:
Arlington Heights
June 19
7:00 p.m.
Village Hall-33 S. Arlington Heights Road
Arlington Heights, IL 60005
Buffalo Grove
June 20
7:00 p.m.
Village Hall-50 Raupp Blvd.
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
Palatine
June 28
7:00 p.m.
Village Hall-200 East Wood Street
Palatine, Illinois 60067
Mount Prospect and Rolling Meadows public workshops were last week.
Rolling Meadows
June 6
7:00pm
City Hall-3600 Kirchoff Road
Rolling Meadows, IL 60008
Mount Prospect
June 12
7:00 p.m.
Village Hall-50 South Emerson St
Mount Prospect, IL 60056
For more information about the Homes for a Changing Region study, including the West Cook County housing policy plans already completed, see Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning Moving Forward section. Click here for more information on the public workshop from a Village of Arlington Heights post card [PDF].
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