Annual Lake County Tax Sale in ways that would sell land at below-market
prices to developers of affordable housing.
Identify incentives to encourage the development of housing below marketrate levels. To mitigate the cost associated with developing housing, the County
can provide incentives to developers. Potential incentives include:
o Expediting the permitting process.
o Adjusting requirements for lot size, setbacks, or parking.
o Leveraging the County’s tax-exempt bond issuance capacity to finance the
cost of acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, and improvement of affordable
housing developments.44
o The County should also encourage municipalities to identify incentives to
encourage the development of affordable housing.
Examine establishing an affordable housing trust fund. Affordable Housing
Trust Funds already exist in Highland Park and Lake Forest and can serve as a
vehicle for reducing the costs of developing housing. These funds can be used to
reduce project costs, thereby allowing developers to offer for-sale and rental
units at below market prices and rents.
Allocate CDBG funds to help overcome this impediment. CDBG funds can
be deployed to address this impediment in several ways:
o Use CDBG funds to buy down the cost of land in exchange for inclusion of
dwellings affordable to households with modest income.
o Use CDBG funds to fund water and sewer infrastructure necessary to create
affordable housing in unincorporated areas.
o Use CDBG funds to make areas with existing affordable housing more
attractive by investing in public facilities, infrastructure, and economic
development there.
44
Consider implementing inclusionary zoning mechanisms. Inclusionary
zoning mechanisms can take on many forms and be customized to individual
communities. Such mechanisms could include requiring units to be set aside for
sale or rental to families with modest incomes or offer incentives (for example,
density bonuses where infrastructure and service capacity can practically support
increased density) to developers who create affordable housing. The County and
municipalities should consider amending zoning ordinances where infrastructure
The Lake County Board in 2008 authorized issuance and sale of up to $10 million in Multi-Family
Housing Revenue Bonds for the Carriage House Apartments, a rental building for low- to moderateincome individuals and families in Gurnee, Illinois. Total project cost was over $15 million.
APPLIED REAL ESTATE ANALYSIS, INC.
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LAKE COUNTY, ILLINOIS