Low Affordability Community (LAC) Ordinance
The Alderwoman designated the 48th ward as a “Low Affordability Community” (LAC) to help encourage more housing, including affordable housing, to be built in our community. Amongst major US metropolitan areas, Chicago is slowest in terms of building new homes. In other words, we aren’t building enough housing, and rents are spiking and home prices are skyrocketing.
The ARO (Affordable Requirements Ordinance), which requires developers to build 20% affordable units is a requirement and not an incentive to actually build much-needed housing. The LAC designation provides another avenue to require 20% affordable housing to be built on site and it acts as an incentive to actually build much-needed housing by providing some tax relief at the beginning of a project. If we’re not building housing, we’re also not building any affordable housing.
Chicago has an affordable housing crisis, and the LAC will help us to solve it by:
Providing a real incentive with guardrails to build a balance of affordable and market-rate housing, increasing our housing supply and helping to stabilize rents long-term. Not all developers can and will use the LAC designation as it requires prevailing wage (union labor) and affordable units must be built on site.
Providing an incentive to develop on vacant lots, of which we have a fair number on Broadway that have sat vacant for years as an eyesore and safety issue in our community.
Growing our city’s tax base, which helps stabilize property taxes, ultimately shifting the tax burden away from 48th ward residents. Under the LAC, the developer will never pay less property taxes than they are currently paying for their property; after developing, they will pay an increasing amount every year, and by year 10, they will be paying the majority of their taxes based on the newly assessed value.
The Broadway rezoning provides the option and opportunities to build housing near transit and to bring more foot traffic to our businesses. ARO is the requirement that developers include affordable housing units in certain projects, and the LAC designation provides the incentive to actually get housing, including affordable housing, built.
The LAC program was developed over many years and supported by major affordable housing stakeholders including The Preservation Compact, a part of the Community Investment Corporation, and the Illinois Housing Council.