The Wilmette Village Board took steps March 13 toward fostering affordable housing through market forces or grants and donations, as well as possible new taxes.
But the pressure is on from non-incumbent village trustee candidates Karen Spillers, Gale Teschendorf and Mike Basil to avoid taxes to promote housing opportunity.
All three challengers panned the idea of taxing residents for affordable housing at a March 11 League of Women Voters forum, while incumbents Mari Terman and Joanne Aggens were more open to the possibility.
Terman and Aggens, as members of the Village Board's Finance Committee, recommended earlier this year that the village explore increasing unit density and other zoning changes to let developers create affordable housing free to village taxpayers. March 13, the full board voted unanimously that the Land Use Committee should explore zoning changes.
The same night, trustees referred another Finance Committee recommendation to the Administration Committee: Creation of a community land trust and an affordable housing trust fund to accept grants and donations, as well as possible tax money.
As Wilmette strives to double its stock of affordable housing, as directed by a recent state law, Aggens has favored a now-stalled "teardown tax" to help fund the effort, though she's expressing doubts since the issue drew opposition in 2006.
The election is April 17th. The league's forum is being replayed on Channel 6 at 5:30 p.m. today (Thursday), 6 p.m. Monday, 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, 5 p.m. March 29 and 10 p.m. March 30 and 31, as well as April 1.
UPDATE: Related story here. Related post here.
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