Good morning.

Today is March 3rd and it is 8:31.

And I'd like to welcome everyone to the Lake County Health and Community Services Committee meeting.

In addition to being able to attend in person, remote attendance has been made available to the public via Zoom at the link on the agenda.

This meeting is being recorded through Zoom.

Her county board rules and the open meetings act.

Attendance via remote means is permitted for qualifying reasons.

As long as the majority of the committee members are physically present, which we had today.

We have been notified in advance by member.

Thank you, by member Dan Forth, that the request for his request to participate electronically.

And there is a quorum uh is physically present, so he may be marked as present and is eligible to vote on matters before the committee today.

As a reminder to all members attending remotely, please ensure your camera's on at all times.

But we asked Member Danforth to be careful since he looks like he might be driving.

I can't tell from that.

But just be careful.

All right.

If I could ask Member Kasman to join us in the pledge of the lead us in the pledge of the allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Can I have a roll call members, please?

Member Kasman.

Here.

Member Cunningham.

Member Danforth.

Present.

Member Main.

Chair Parr.

Chair Hard.

Is here.

Oh.

Oh, I think it's the I thought you said you're hard too.

Yes, I'm here.

I thought the same thing.

Um is there any addenda to today's agenda?

No addenda to the agenda.

All right.

Do we have any public comments?

No public.

Okay.

I don't have any chair's remarks other than welcome everyone.

It's been, I think about a month, so glad everyone is here.

Do we have any unfinished business?

No finish business.

All right.

We only have one item for consent agenda.

8.1 is a committee action approving the health and community service committee meet meeting minutes from February 3, 2026.

Can I have a motion?

Motion by Member Kasman, second by Vice Chair Altenberg.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

8.2 is a joint resolution amending the Lake County Health Department environmental health fee schedule.

Um and I do need a motion, right?

Yep.

Can I have a motion by member Cunningham?

Member motion by Member Cunningham, second by member Maine.

Welcome, gentlemen.

All right, good morning, everybody.

Chris off.

Uh Mike Adam, director of Marmant Health is here to walk us through the few change uh rationale and uh Robin's here as well to answer any questions.

Yeah.

So Robin Van Sickle is our coordinator of animal care and control.

She's been out there for over 15 years or doing that.

So uh so what this is today is we're requesting some changes to the municipal fee schedule.

So as you know, we could do a lot of work in unincorporated Lake County, but we also have 43 contracts with the municipalities.

And we're sort of doing an animal care and control in those municipalities.

We do have the fee schedule for them to, you know, if we have costs associated with that.

We haven't made any revisions to this since 2018.

So the changes we are proposing are reflective of the increased cost to house these animals, not only for in the kennel, uh, but veterinary care.

Uh a lot of times these animals come in with a lot of issues that we have to take care of.

So those costs have gone up and also rehoming fees.

So if we have a uh an adoption agency or something like that that comes in and takes the animals, we they do charge us oftentimes for that fee.

So that reflects uh these costs as well.

We also kind of simplified some of the the fees, uh consolidated some of them uh to make it a little simpler, and then we also uh had one other increase, and that was for non-contracted municipalities.

We would like to get more municipalities with contracts with us, and so that's um also a slight increase there.

The um we had our environmental health and advisory committee approved this back in November.

And then I also want to make a note that we did have a meeting with all of our municipalities that we have contracts with before all this, just saying we might be doing this just to give them an idea to give them a heads up because they have to prepare for their budgets as well, and they were very supportive of understanding of what is happening.

Uh as you know, after COVID, animals were you know, shelters were just crowded with many, many animals.

So that's reflects uh these proposed changes.

So take any questions.

Thank you.

Um this sounds totally reasonable.

I I'm just wondering for the sake of my my understanding of process, it is approved by the Board of Health.

Why does it come before us is because it's financial in nature, or because we don't see everything?

And I'm just wondering if anybody knows that.

I don't know that.

I mean, I I'm open to why hearing why.

Sounds like you're what you said seems reasonable.

Yeah, because you have your own governing board.

I just was wondering why it works before us.

Just curiosity.

I'm not like past practices.

Said about it.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's because it's financial, right?

So we have that intersect.

Right.

Oh, I guess it would be ultimately rolled up in the budget.

It's the same.

Maybe like the health department, they approve their budget and it comes comes here.

Oh, okay.

Comes here and other things come here.

So this committee sees items related to the health department.

Great.

Thanks.

Member Altenburg.

Thank you.

So this is the fee that the municipalities are paying if you have to go pick up um like a wounded animal, dead animal in in their municipality, and you take it back to our facility.

Correct.

And it sort of depends on what the actual outcome is.

Sometimes if if an owner you know will call us the next day and hey, you have my animal, you know, we're not gonna charge them for that.

These are these are specific situations where the animal ends up having been disposed of some sort, and they were hopefully rehomed or something like that, or if there's really bad medical situation, sometimes we do have to uh euthanize.

So the fee the the cost of disposing of the animal has more than tripled.

Yeah, it's um well, so there's been a couple things, increased vet vet costs, you know, the cost to if anybody has a uh an animal, you know, a vet cost of considerably uh but also you know if we have a dispose of an animal, if we have to euthanize it, there is the disposal fee of the body.

But then the other thing too is uh one of our main partners that re-homes them, uh they used to charge us $50 per animal when they picked it up, they now charge us 150 dollars.

Wow.

Um because they're their place is crowded too, and and there's just a real kind of animal kind of I want to call it crisis, but in uh throughout the country with many of the um uh places that animal care control facilities.

Okay, okay.

And and it's also I will say, too, that there is some flexibility we have here.

It's not just automatically we're gonna charge 150 dollars.

It's depends on the situation.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Member Kasman, then member Hart.

Yeah.

Um just to be clear, I'm not mad about hearing about it.

I think it's good for I think you were angry.

Yeah, this is health and community services.

I was wondering where our intersect is, and um, I'm I'm always interested in to know like if we were to say no today, could you not still do it?

I and and is that's just maybe an offline conversation to have with administration about uh always just always a student of process and health department is particularly interesting because you have your own governing board.

It's I where those intersects are and where we actually have approval or disapproval power is sometimes not clear to me.

So thank you for but I'm glad to hear about it because if I get questions about it from municipal partners, I I will know.

So this is a great nice to note anyway.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Hart.

Thank you.

Uh and I just want to make sure I'm understanding the attachment.

So there's the red line version, which is what I'm looking at.

So it's got how the cost of change, like we're talking about, and then you continue to scroll down.

There's the um, then there's another one, which is municipal contract fees.

Is the the one so that's like the last page?

Is that just the non-red line?

I think that's the not, yeah.

That's the non-red line.

It's like a yes, it's kind of a shortened version of it, I guess.

Okay, I just want to understand that.

And then um, can you would you please let's say somebody's dog is bitten in a municipality?

Let's just non-contract, whatever.

Somebody's the dog is is bitten, they take their dog to the vet because they have this dog bite from this other dog.

What happens there?

Like, is there is there something like do veterinarians uh reach out to the health department because hey, do we have this record of dogs biting people or dogs biting other dogs, or how did how does that work?

Yeah, because they are required.

You want to Robert giving you.

So animal bites are required to be reported by law, whether it's a doctor's office, a police department, um, a school, anyone, any um in an official capacity that is receiving an animal bite has to report it to the local health department by law.

Um, that's because of the rabies risk.

Once that report is uh submitted to the health department, animal control into the health department then follows up on that report.

First thing we do is we contact the victim, ask them how they're doing, if they received medical treatment, um, and then we contact the dog owner or the cat owner, whoever um is the owner of the biting animal.

We then look at vaccination records, and once we establish the vaccination record, then that dictates what type of a rabies observation is required.

The animal is up to date on vaccinations, it can stay home for the quarantine.

If it's not up to date, then it has to be hospital quarantined.

We leave it up to the animal hospitals on whether or not they can do the quarantines.

It's based on their staffing abilities, their kennel space.

If they're allowed to do overnight housing, um, or if they would just prefer the local animal care and control shelter to do that quarantine.

Sometimes animals are just so aggressive that the shelter, the uh animal hospitals, due to their staffing consum safety concerns, they don't want the animal at their facility because they have to physically walk them every day.

Where our facility is hands off, it's indoor outdoor.

They can go outside, um, bring them inside for cleaning.

It's completely hands off.

So sometimes it's preferred for us to do the quarantine.

Um, or if spacing doesn't allow at the sh at the um animal hospitals, um, we'll do it as well.

Okay.

Thank you.

So all police departments would know that if somebody is bitten by a dog, they have to report that to the Lee County Health.

That's correct.

And we provide them with the forms that's necessary.

Um, the municipality is also partner with us with respect to investigating those bite uh incidences.

So we aren't uh we don't provide necessarily community policing within the municipalities.

We do prefer the municipalities to police their own residents.

They know their community, they know their um their residents, they have working relationships with them.

So if there's a nuisance issue with um dogs running loose or an aggressive animal or a multiple bite history, they'll contact us if they want us to do further investigations with respect to dangerous animal aggressive or vicious determinations.

We always partner with them on what they would like us to do more, if anything at all.

Sometimes they just say, you know what, we got this, it's our residents.

We'll we'll we'll move forward with the state requirements with a quarantine, but with respect to any additional requirements like muzzle or enclosures or things like that, they'll they'll take care of that.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

I I just had one question.

Um 2018 was the last time we updated our fee schedule.

That's correct.

Do we have a general rule of when we do it?

Just seems, I mean, it's been gosh, that was eight years ago now, right?

Like, yeah, it's been every every you know, every sub so many years, we do look at all of our fees and look at the how much costs are going up, and sometimes we do not raise them.

I mean, like for instance, a couple of years ago we came here before you with the lab fees.

So we have a lab that does water sampling.

So every couple of years we will do that analysis to see if that as costs go up, do we need to do that?

Preferably not, but yeah, we will part of our standard procedure.

And periodic.

Yeah.

Right, and and as needed.

But I will say too that municipalities do not get charged a fee unless they request a service.

So they can have a contract with us and it just be there as a safety net.

And up until they request our service, our assistance, our guidance, they don't get a fee.

It's just there as a safety net.

Excellent.

Okay.

Any questions?

Additional questions?

No, all right.

Uh all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Thank you very much.

All right.

We'll move on to item 8.3, which is a presentation on highlights from the housing lake summit.

And next steps.

Welcome, Eric and Dominic.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So it's it's been some time since uh we presented an update uh to HCS on the housing lake initiative, which is a uh regional initiative we've been pursuing since last July.

Uh today's meeting comes at a very timely juncture in the coalition's work, uh, just weeks after the successful February 11th summit this last month.

February's Housing Lake Summit represents the culmination of work that the coalition's been engaging in since our kickoff meeting back in July of last year.

Six meetings later, we came together last month at the summit to celebrate our collective progress in assessing our regional housing challenges and a framework for solving them.

So today we'll recap this phase one series that we just completed and highlights from the summit itself from last month before describing the path forward for Housing Lake.

And at the conclusion of this morning's presentation, we'll proceed to item 8.4, which sets the stage for a multi-year commitment to partner with CMAP on the implementation plan for uh Housing Lake's important policy work.

So, first we'll begin with uh a brief overview of the meeting series and that the next slide here.

Housing Lake's initial phase of work, um, uh seven meeting series, as you can see on the timeline here, was designed to bring together stakeholders from across the housing ecosystem in Lake County, get everybody on the same page about the state of housing in our region, and develop a general strategy for tackling the housing gap.

At the kickoff meeting that we had in July, event number one, we first convened a large and diverse group consisting of county reps, municipalities, other township government reps, uh workforce and economic development partners, community health entities, educators, developers and builders, financial institutions, real estate interests, nonprofit service providers, and others.

We heard from a diverse panel of speakers at that first event on the intersection of housing with all aspects of life and work in our communities, including Kevin Considine of Lake County Partners, Executive Director Chris Hoff from the Lake County Health Department, Dr.

Carner from the Regional Office of Education, Jacob Ridge from uh the Illinois Housing Development Authority, or Ida, and special guest Olivia Perry, who is our counterpart from Dane County Housing Initiative up in uh Wisconsin, whose work is an example of how regions can come together to tackle housing issues.

This initiative stems from the sobering conclusions from the 2023 uh Lake County Housing Report commissioned by Lake County Partners, showing a countywide projected gap, uh cumulative gap of over 11,000 units and market rate, 1,200 affordable uh units for seniors, and over 6,700 affordable units for families by 2027 at the current rate of housing production here.

On how the housing gap risks both quality of life, health, economic stability, and community impacts.

We level set an understanding of the degree of the crisis we were in right now and the need for steps forward to unlap housing production in the region.

Later on in the workshops, and there's a series of them there on the screen, uh, we developed a common set of what we call pillars for action, four distinct policy tools, uh, each of which identified problems and opportunities related to some aspect of the housing challenge, which I'll cover in greater detail later in the slideshow.

And the final meeting in the series, the summit brought everybody back together this February to revisit all the work we'd accomplished thus far and chart a collective path forward, what we call uh a call to action.

And I'll I'll next recap highlights from the summit.

Uh, but before that, uh, we'll take a couple minutes to watch a short video uh that encapsulates the spirit of Housing Lake and shares our vision for what comes next.

So let's see.

Lake County faces a housing crisis.

We're short, nearly 8,000 homes.

In fact, the entire country is grappling with this.

An increased number of households, a shortage of homes, increased demand for diverse housing stock, and high construction costs.

While many communities remain stuck, each working to solve the crisis in their own individual lane.

Lake County chose to approach this differently.

This wasn't an issue that anyone could or should try to solve alone.

We have more than 50 municipalities, each with different rules and processes.

There's a workforce housing shortage that affects businesses, families, and our regional economy.

We need housing that offers solutions for everyone, from young adults in entry-level careers to seniors hoping to age in place.

This simply doesn't exist in many communities.

How can we bring everyone together?

Every person, place, and industry that the housing crisis impacts to form actionable solutions.

That's where Housing Lake comes in.

Lake County was named one of the best places for economic development.

But in order to have economic development, you need to be able to have housing for lots of different people in their different stages of life.

Housing in Lake County has not kept up with population growth.

And so there's a huge shortage of affordable housing, different uh types of housing, whether it's single-family homes and apartments and condos and townhomes and affordable housing throughout the entire county as opposed to just concentrated in certain communities.

We bought everyone to the table.

Municipalities, developers, employers, nonprofits, and residents.

Over 175 people committed to finding real solutions.

Together, we created four foundational pillars towards change.

Policy reform that makes sense for Lake County's unique landscape.

Financing tools that actually work for our communities.

Partnerships between public and private sectors that deliver results.

An education of the situation at hand that allows us to cut out misinformation and work locally to deliver actionable strategies.

We have beautiful land, we've got municipalities, we've got people who work every day, and they just want a place to live.

Looking at outside companies, outside um cities, and seeing how they do things, I think is more of a collaboration and community kind of grassroots thing that needs to happen versus from the top down.

So my hope is that through this initiative that we can create on ramps for developers, donated land, um, if we got to do tiny homes or container homes, that we could open up the door for the diversity of type of housing and use the local workforce to build it.

From ADUs to deed restricted affordable units to duplexes, forplexes, and more.

We're creating options that work for Lake County.

This isn't about one-size-fits-all.

It's about giving our municipalities the tools they need and the support to use them.

Six subregions, and more than 50 municipalities united by one goal: housing solutions that work for everyone.

Join us in making Lake County a place where everyone can afford to live, work, and thrive.

All right.

That's a nice video, courtesy of motion source, one of the subcontractors for the project.

So as you can see, the team was able to grab a lot of really dynamic moments from throughout the series.

Um, and uh we we have an opportunity to share those not with just not just with the shareholders, uh the stakeholders for the initiative, but uh this video is now posted on the on the website, so it's available to the public.

Now we'll spend a few minutes uh recapping the summit itself uh on uh February 7th at the new Regional Office of Education digs in Conway Park.

So um at that um at that event after everyone was assembled and after uh introductory remarks from Chair Hart, Mayors Rockingham, Cunningham, and Rotary, Kevin Considine from the Lake County Partners led a panel of thought leaders um from the housing ecosystem into a sort of series of questions and answers about various topics uh related to housing constraints and opportunities.

The panel was really similar to the kickoff panel uh in the sense that it brought together representatives from uh a diverse group of of housing-related sectors.

So we had obviously hometown hero Brendan O'Connell, formerly from uh community development, who's now at Ida representing uh the state on this panel.

Also locally, we had um Joel Fontaine from Highland Park, community director there, as well as Rob Anthony from Community Partners for Affordable Housing.

Also on hand was David Bach, representing the national developer Heinz, and Sheilen Dangle, our colleague from over in McHenry County, whose council of governments is undertaking a similar housing initiative.

The panel discussion was really a great way to warm up for the main event at the summit, or what we can refer to as the call to action, which you have here, which is a plan to kick off the implementation phase for our housing lake coalition.

So what is the call to action?

In the most immediate sense, uh the call to action is a digital resource document that encapsulates all the work that we've done thus far with Housing Lake, including pulling together uh housing data strategies and next steps for our regional housing initiative.

It's a tangible work product of the coalition's seven meeting series.

The structure of the call to action document really memorializes the insights of the coalition's work, lays out uh strategies on what we call the four pillars, which you heard about on the video for housing implementation.

I'll talk a little bit more about those in a few minutes.

There's an engagement toolkit for participants and a look at the road ahead for our region as we move forward to implement our various housing strategies.

Here's some of the document sample pages, and and uh there's also in the top right corner of the slide there, you'll see a QR code that you people can use to download the document in full.

And it's a really excellent resource.

So, as I said, in its most immediate sense, the call to action is a document, uh resource manual distilling all the insights from the housing leak stakeholders compiled over the last seven meetings.

But it's more than that.

It's in a broader sense, the call to action is actually uh it's a gesture to our regional stakeholders to stay engaged, stay connected, stay committed to help solving the regional housing crisis that we're in right now.

While many of the tools and solutions are yet to be developed, um the stakeholder engagement really starts now for the group.

Uh, to that end, there's uh a really important um element of the of the document.

It's called the stakeholder engagement toolkit that helps stakeholder communities, agencies, and organizations get conversations started in their various corners of the housing ecosystem right now while we uh get to work laying out the the next phase in house in the housing lake initiative featured in the toolkit are presentation decks for for different communities to utilize and talk about housing and talk about their role in housing, uh pre-designed social media content that could be shared uh throughout the community, and talking points addressing uh different audiences and their concerns.

So now let's talk about the next steps for Housing Lake, um the implementation phase.

We've got a lot of really important uh work ahead of us.

In item 8.4 coming up next on your agenda on the presentation after this presentation.

Uh it's essentially an action uh on a resolution approving a memorandum of understanding uh between Lake County and CMAP, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency Agency for Planning on how to move forward uh the to the implementation phase for Housing Lake.

Specifically covered in this MOU are uh several items, including creation of a project plan, uh outlining products to be delivered over an agreed timeline.

We're looking at a three-year commitment at this point, a resource and funding strategy to execute the project plan in the various stages ahead, procurement processes to build a team and contractors to assist in the planning and execution of the project plan.

And then finally, engagement strategies to expand the coalition among local and regional stakeholders, ensuring adoption and implementation.

The MOU and the implementation phase to begin later this year is built around a framework of housing strategies that again we refer to as the pillars, the four pillars, and here they are policy and regulatory reform, funding and finance tools, partnerships and development capacity and communications and education.

Work on housing implementation strategies within each of these four pillars will be organized into a workshop format.

Each workshop series being focused on several specific objectives that were developed through phase one.

The idea is that across our diverse spectrum of stakeholders and housing lake, each of these stakeholders is going to really be drawn to one or more of these different workshop series depending on their subject matter expertise, depending on their needs and their interests.

And through that diverse representation in each one of these four workshop series, we'll continue to solicit really good feedback from our partners and get consensus around tackling each objective.

And I'll now share with you some specific objectives within each of these pillars.

So looking at uh the policy and regulatory reform pillar first.

This one's designed to shift our regulatory paradigm about housing and uh construction so we can really move the needle on our urgent housing gap that mentioned before.

Uh the priority objectives include diversification of the housing stock through zoning, creating a more predictable, more efficient, streamlined uh housing production process through development approvals, uh really focus on affordable housing as a core component of this strategy.

And then uh, you know, look at where in the community we can actually focus our resources most effectively to maximize production early on.

Pillar two funding and financing tools.

In this one, we tackle one of the key components of the of the of a successful housing strategy is that how to how to pay for it.

And the priority objectives for this uh tool include improving awareness of existing funding resources, increasing availability of private and philanthropic funding resources, and then uh critically expanding local public funding resources to support housing development and rehab.

This is going to be a really really technical exercise, one that we're gonna use a lot of help from our subject matter experts in the funding and financing uh sector.

Um, but it it proves to be one of the most impactful elements of our strategy going forward in partnerships and development capacity.

This this recognizes that you know, as a region of stakeholders, we're greater than the sum of our parts.

You know, we can maximize um this uh this effort by connecting all of our stakeholders from across the region in new and innovative ways.

The objectives include building a robust network of housing stakeholders.

We've started that with the with the meeting series.

We're gonna expand on that in phase two, strengthen relationships with our development community, utility providers, and others, and then maintaining and strengthening intergovernmental working relationships.

Most of housing production in the county is going to occur within municipal uh jurisdictions, and we need to make sure that our municipal partners are all together in this effort.

And so we're gonna continue to solicit feedback from them and and uh and work on building better relationships with our municipal counterparts.

And finally, the communications and education pillar is really about regional engagement that over the housing crisis.

And it it's a design to really help this effort resonate throughout our communities and organizations, and this is kind of the hearts and minds strategy at its core.

Objectives include linking housing needs and advocacy to broader regional dynamics, leading countywide education to support housing and to combat NIMBYism, establish the coalition as a leader in housing coordination and facilitation, and then finally prioritizing transparency and analysis of housing to build community trust.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So just so oh well, just in time, I guess.

All right, thank you.

So link housing needs and advocacy to broader regional dynamics.

So is an example of that, like, hey, this particular community or region is really working hard on attracting these types of businesses, and we need to ensure that there's an understanding that if you want to attract these types of businesses, you need this workforce housing.

Is that what you're saying there?

It that and many other things.

Okay, what are the other things?

That was, yeah.

So that was one.

So one of one of the things that you know we we see um in the housing ecosystem is this issue of NIMBYism.

Um, NIMBYism is a uh phenomenon that occurs uh primarily when uh community residents and others uh are you know are concerned about the impact of something new within their community.

Right.

Uh we we have a lot of work ahead of us in in communicating with the public, and our partners have a lot of work ahead of them in communicating with their constituents on really who who is affected by housing um housing challenges.

It's you know, the workforce that that essentially you know runs their their downtown uh shops.

It's the the people that work in their in their institutions, these are the service providers in the community.

Housing affects really everybody.

Um, and so it instead of looking at housing as something to to be afraid of or to be concerned about, housing should be looked at as a benefit to the community.

And so there's going to be a lot of advocacy around housing production in these communities and ensuring that the public is really fully engaged on on what it means to have housing um within their community, how it benefits them.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Uh member main thank you.

Uh great job, all those meetings and pulling everybody together.

Um I mean this and the positive.

There's a lot here that we already knew, but you sometimes you just need to pull it all together and get everyone hearing things at the same time.

I I have a few questions.

One kind of relates to the next item, but you did have a slide in there about this MOU with the uh 36 months.

And then if I look at the four different pillars, um do you have uh another document that's not attached to either one of these with a timeline for when these different deliverables are happening?

So we're not waiting 36 months to get something like what are we getting in 12 months?

What are we getting along the way?

So the idea of the the MOU is to is to use the first few months of um this this uh sort of renewed partnership with CMAP to develop a work plan.

And so we're going to be establishing a work plan for both the full 36 month period, but also breaking it down into you know work plan elements year to year.

Each of the each of the of the quarters that we're gonna be going through this process, we're gonna have a set of deliverables that we'll be reporting out to committee um and to and to the broader housing partnership.

And so um once we get this MOU in place, we're going to really dig into how to structure the process going forward.

And once we have that in place over the next few weeks, we're gonna start outlining the deliverables for year one, then year two, then year three.

And so it is it it's in it's designed as a as a essentially a roadmap for partnership with CMAP to put the meat on the bones of this initiative in phase two.

Okay.

Um I have a couple more questions.

So how do you envision like pillar two, which is um funding and financing tools?

How do you envision um the engagement with the state?

I mean, we're never gonna, there's not going to be enough private funding resources to make a dent, right?

That that's gonna be de minimis, right?

And we we've talked before that there are a lot of costs involved in terms of um codes, building codes, width of um stairwells, things like, you know, there's a lot of things that really raise the price.

Um how, and I'm sure Heinz brings that in.

And yes, most of the housing is going to be taking place in um incorporated areas, not in unincorporated, excuse me.

Lake County.

But that's true with almost everything we deal with, right?

I mean, and this department, your department has created model ordinances for another things.

I mean, I would think some of this stuff we already know.

Are we moving along on that?

That some of the stuff we don't really need to wait till month 15 to get here we are at this point.

We already know that stuff.

So what are we doing to move things along and to be looking at our own zoning codes?

Because it's like who has to jump in the pool first, right?

And that needs to be us, and you guys have done that.

So can you give uh a sense of those sorts of things, how we're gonna be first in the pool and change these things that we already know are issues.

So that's uh a lot of questions and of course, and I have more.

Why don't I start with the the topic of the sort of financing and funding um opportunities for for this initiative?

So one of the things that we're tracking right now is um you know is policy making at the state.

Um and we know that the state has taken um an interest in revisiting its its uh LITEC or low income tech tax credit program for housing that uh represents the largest component of the financing stack or uh most affordable projects and uh the state's revisiting that uh that tool to to identify opportunities to expand access to LightTick um tax credit funding for for these types of projects.

Um also looking at any and all available um tools available at the at the federal level.

But beyond that, there are some things that we're gonna be talking about a little bit later, um, local funding strategies that um we could potentially organize and execute within this initiative that will provide for additional funding streams to subsidize affordable units throughout the county, kind of piggybacking on the work that we already do in CDBG and home um programs and utilizing some other local revenue sources for this.

And so more to come on that on the funding and financing side.

As it relates to sort of the county taking a leadership position or a leadership role in modeling best practices and behavior in uh the the area of of housing production.

One of the things that we're looking at right now in our current round of amendments, uh comprehensive amendments to the Lake County Unified Development Ordinance is are a series of we'll call them process streamlining uh tools that will be available to developers in the unincorporated area that's going to be coming later this year.

We're still in the final stages of drafting that material before it goes to the ZBA.

This has already been authorized by the board to move forward with um with amendments when we're ready for that.

In addition to that, uh creating some additional opportunities for increased density uh within projects that take advantage of certain um sustainability components.

And I think that with these sort of I'll call them baby steps uh in our process before we even get into the best practices policy reforms in Housing Lake, they're sort of positioning us to start the conversation about what we can already do.

Um our approach with respect to the sort of uh policy reform approach to um to housing production through housing lake is to work in partnership with our respective communities.

And the I think the solutions that we're gonna be uh that we're gonna be developing are not gonna be one size fits all solutions.

As all of you know, we have a vast diversity of communities with within Lake County.

Um we have very urbanized communities, we have rural communities.

Lake County itself in the unincorporated area has a little bit of both.

And uh we have to tailor solutions to those specific geographies and constraints and opportunities.

And so we envision the regulatory reform process, a series of best practices that are designed to meet communities where they're at their in, you know, in their specific roles, they have the authority to to regulate development within their borders, but we can through this effort give them tools, develop consensus around these tools to help them incrementally increase housing production within the within the scope of their uh communities within the context of their specific geographies.

And as part of that, we're gonna be doing the same with our regulatory process in that in that uh in that effort.

Two questions, comment, and I'll stop um for today.

So, yeah, you you touched on my um that diversity of my comment, and I've brought this up before that we have large areas that have low density zoning that are new low.

It's not like they were all farms way back and current, and that is de facto right, you know, does uh all sorts of things.

Who can live there, right?

Right in many different ways.

And um, and that's that's a challenge.

It's like we live here, you work there, you come over here.

Anyway, um, so that's that's a big challenge.

Um do you see ADUs having a role in okay, so ADUs, and then um do you see um the state of Illinois going to in your prognostication role here, um, things such as the state of California where they allow certain things by right?

Yeah, so the the governor recently announced some major zoning reforms um that he would like to to work with the legislature on implementing at the state level.

I see that as a beginning point in the conversation, obviously um when you talk about um the state's involvement in local uh regulatory authority that raises hackles.

Um municipalities and counties are traditionally they they value their autonomy.

Um there will likely be resistance to some of those ideas that are uh presented in the governor's um initiative.

But by the same token, I think that a lot of communities are starting to recognize that we are in a crisis mode, and so there we we have to look at new and different ways of approaching housing within our regions.

And so I do see that some of that stuff's gonna make its way into successful legislation, and it's it for us, I think we need to keep going at our level right now.

We don't need to wait, we shouldn't wait for the state to develop solutions for us.

We have the authority, we have the initiative and we have the capability to do that work ourselves without being told to do it because we know we have a problem.

We've established that back in 23 with the Lake County Partners Housing Report.

We have we have a crisis right now, we can't wait.

We got to do it.

Thank you.

Member Cadman.

I have quite a few.

If that's uh can we could we?

I know we have a does someone have a one-off.

So I think we generally limit to three.

So could you sure and then remember uh Kniesnik and then I and I have three.

And then member Oliver.

And then can I have my second round?

Okay.

You can have a second round.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Um first I want to say kudos to Lake County for taking this on it all.

Um, as just for the community members who might be listening, um we are not a home rule community.

Um, as such, we have limited levers for sticks.

So we're a carrot only kind of operation.

And I really appreciate how um this particular housing lake effort has brought together people who are interested in and keeping this going, bring keeping to see the problem, who see the economic impacts of the problem, who are seeing it in their communities all the time.

And I really appreciate us uh that we are taking a lead on this, even though we don't have the a lot of direct levers in the municipalities to make that happen.

Um, in with regard to that, um it in the MOU that's coming up, it it says, you know, we we are not um making CMAP responsible for specific outcomes in specific municipalities, which makes sense because we don't have power there.

Um what does success look like for housing lake?

Um, what is the what are the overall um measures of success?

In the broadest sense, success is an increase in the supply of housing, both at market rate and at the affordable levels.

That's really the key goal is to close that housing gap that we see in the future.

Um, but uh, but I think that the the details of the metrics of getting there is gonna be where we really evaluate the the success of the initiative.

I think we're gonna look at each one of these different uh pillars.

There's a lot of different individual strategies that have outcomes that we're looking for that we're gonna have to work develop metrics around to gauge how quickly, how effectively we're meeting each of these objectives in service of the larger goal, the overarching goal of increased housing production.

That makes sense.

Um sometimes when I'm looking at this, um, and I and I I was I was at every session and I thought they were terrific.

There was a lot of good energy in the room.

Um, each covered a topic, and we were able to drill down to what the pillars are and how we're gonna move forward in the future, which I really appreciate.

But when we look at the enormity of the problem, I I mean it's and it's good to hear about communities that have started programs like Highland Park because it's it's really important that we show models of how things can be done.

Are we looking at the overall problem and saying these are this thousands of units required?

How are we actually going to get to that number?

Um because I think while um zoning reforms and I think while all of these pillars are critically important.

It would seem like we would need like a big outside the box sort of uh response to the to the problem.

It's it's gonna take a lot of effort to get there.

It's gonna be very hard.

Um and there's really no one solution that's gonna bring us forward closing that gap.

What we see in the next few years is I'll call it like a series, a patchwork quilt of steps in that direction.

We're gonna be looking at you know more urbanized communities building out their downtowns in areas that make the most sense, where density is actually, you know, co kind of coexisting with the downtown environment, access to transit and so forth.

But we're also looking at ways in which we can move the needle even in tiny ways in the more rural parts of the county through these things like ADUs.

Am I gonna predict that we're gonna close the gap of you know, over 16,000 units by 2027?

I'm not gonna predict that.

I think what our our challenge is is to figure out ways in which we can we can start narrowing the gap in the in the near term.

But more importantly, I think that this initiative has the opportunity to create cultural change across the county.

You know, we're stuck in an old sort of housing paradigm where you have you, you know, the the American, you know, the American life, the American way of life is kind of centered on these single family detached, you know, residential developments.

And that's that's changing in parts of the country already where they're recognizing that that's not going to help us close the gap on housing production.

We have to rethink how our communities are built.

And so the one of the main sort of overarching goals of this whole exercise is to shift people's thinking about housing that helps them sort of imagine what housing could look like beyond their current housing paradigm, thinking about how communities can be expanded, how they can be improved with housing production, you know, uh, we need to find ways in which through this partnership, we can collectively change the hearts and minds across the county.

And I think that's gonna be more of a generational issue.

My my thought and my hope for this initiative is that over the next three years, we're gonna lay the foundation for something that's gonna be much bigger and much longer lasting with bigger impacts down the line.

That makes sense.

My last one.

Um I think that leads into my next question, which is the number one, I guess, concern I heard um from folks who participated was okay, but some of the areas that have the most restrictive sort of zoning policies.

Um I don't know if I saw them there.

And you know, we there's always a there's there's already a feeling that we're very have not in Lake County.

And I'm wondering if there are ways that we can promote engagement in these areas that don't have a lot of density that you know have land not density um and have the most restrictive zoning processes to help them see, yeah.

I I really do think that there are some early adopters out there, champions who sort of fit that sort of bedroom community paradigm that have already, before this housing lake initiative even began, have already begun to shift their approach because they recognize that you know, seniors that are now empty nesters within their communities don't have a place to stay, you know, they can't downsize from their existing homes.

There's because the the range of of housing types within their community are so restricted, these communities are actually starting to shift their approach.

bedroom community paradigm that have already before this housing lake initiative even began have already begun to shift their approach because they recognize that you know seniors that are now empty nesters within their communities don't have a place to stay you know they can't downsize from their existing homes there's because the the range of of housing types within their community are so restricted these communities are actually starting to shift their approach I'm not saying all of them are going to going about it the same way but we have some some early adopters that are out there who we want to we want to champion their success in shifting the narrative on housing that you know that that really looks at ways in which they can you know they can change the overall structure of housing within their communities and I think by showcasing those early successes we can maybe start the conversation going in a different direction with some of these other communities that that still at this point are are not quite as uh enthusiastic about this initiative as as we'd like them to be member can use it thank you this is a great conversation um I have a couple of ideas and and questions um so over the weekend my son moved into his first apartment and being a concerned mother uh I did a lot of research about the neighborhood that he moved into and it is South Edgewater uh which I understand obviously that's an urban community which you know Lake County is not entirely urban I get that uh but one of the things that I learned is that community in particular as it's gone through the process of gentrification in the last couple of decades has done it remarkably well and one of the ways that they did it and by remarkably well I define that as they have maintained their cultural and socioeconomic diversity uh with slow incremental changes and one thing stood out for me in particular uh there was uh housing development um I think it's uh somewhat of a mid-rise building it has a hundred and twenty units in it I believe again this is urban I realize you know and we're not talking about an urban area but if you could just kind of I just want to share the general concept of it this particular development um has condos in it that range in price today from 59,000 a per unit to 400,000 per unit and I just I know that's part of why they've been so successful at maintaining socioeconomic diversity and I rec I recognize this is not a perfect match with the challenges we're facing in Lake County but I keep thinking about how in recent years there have been in our less dense areas of Lake County there's been a lot of resistance that things like um the affordable housing unit I'm blanking on the name of it right now that are development that they're trying to put in Lake Zurich uh and it's entirely affordable housing units.

And I am really curious if during the six months that you were gathering data and hearing back from folks, what do you think the openness is and I I understand it's 50 municipalities it's going to be varying levels of openness for each community but I wonder if a development a development like that might be more palatable right uh where there's truly mixed types of housing in a single development it doesn't have to be one building it could be you know like a neighborhood right um but I you know I wonder to what extent that type of approach is being considered so you look at you know communities like Highland Park for example that have in we call them inclusionary housing ordinances already in effect where you know for what might otherwise be a fully market rate project there are units that are set aside for affordable um residents or residents that are you know at low to mod income that approach is not by any means a widely utilized approach that's something that could potentially be much more utilized in in especially in the more urbanized parts of the county where you can you can visualize additional density because the urban infrastructure is there to support it you know these larger buildings with more units I think the challenge though getting back to the sort of funding and financing uh pillar is how to make that project pencil out housing is expensive now and we have to find ways to drive the cost down um whether that's through subsidizing also also you know the by virtue of the the development process itself and I so I think that one of the solutions that some communities are going to have to look at is to make it pencil out they're gonna have to look at increased density within some of these you know what we call you know sort of the midrise areas within urban downtowns you know looking at for example what's happening in a in a place like Vernon Hills with the redevelopment of the Hawthorne mall you know that's an area where the I think there are definitely financial incentives involved that's a it's a TIFT project um but the in order for that for that approach to work at that location they had to be flexible on the density within that within those those units.

Um, but the in order for that for that approach to work at that location, they had to be flexible on the density within that within those those units.

And so I think that's one of the strategies that we're going to be looking at as part of the the overall approach to working with our more urbanized partners, you know, figuring out ways in which we can we can sort of allow for gentle density increases um within their urban core um that will be that will not be disruptive to the community, but will allow for projects to pencil out to be more economically viable, you know, density is really probably one of the biggest opportunities to reduce that unit cost for.

Yeah, I guess I'm just uh what can we do?

And I don't expect to have an answer today, but like what can we do in order to make sure the next time a development along the lines of what's going in in Vernon Hills uh around that TIFF area, what can we do next time to make sure there's a lot more diversity in the types of housing in that single development, right?

I mean, I'm Vernon Hills is my my town.

I live there and I'm really proud of what they're doing, but the units that are being developed and built are way out of reach for most people.

Like what would it take to get the next developer who spearheads something like that in the next municipality to put things in place so that we have units in that same development that are affordable and units that are you know market rate and above, right?

Why can't we have them all?

I think I think the solution for that is clear.

You need a community to embrace that um that inclusionary aspect of development.

And we have we have a few champions of that approach already.

We have at least three communities uh with urbanized, you know, sort of downtowns that have inclusionary housing ordinances in effect.

Not a lot of development happens, you know, in in accordance with those um with those uh those ordinances, but that is sort of the main vehicle for achieving sort of consistency within a given community in terms of how that works out.

Obviously, at our level, we can also support those development, those those sort of mixed income developments.

And we do that, you know, not infrequently with um our CDBG and home dollars.

We could help that, you know, developers are are at the at the end of the day, they're making sure that they they can get a return on their investment with the project.

If through additional financial incentives, we at the county can help them pencil out a project, they're gonna be far more willing to um to build unit to set aside units that are that are affordable income residents.

And so utilizing those kinds of financial incentives that we currently have and that we can build upon will also I think help move the needle on these kinds of projects.

Well, two responses to that.

I would say um number one, I I think that fourth pillar is gonna be crucially important of communications and typically, and I this is not a comment on this body, Lake County or certainly not your department, but often the communications piece is often kind of seen as this the nice thing to have on the side.

I would just like to go on record as saying community the fourth pillar is about changing people's hearts and minds, and it it should be at least as important as the funding and the other two pillars, if not more.

Uh, and then the other thing I would say is I would like to see um the the activity that you just described on the part of the county, I'd like to be really intentional about I'd like us to be very intentional about making sure we're working in incentives for the developers to create mixed income um facilities.

Uh and so I'll be watching for those two things.

The other the second thing I wanted to ask you about is because of my other job, I spent two days in East St.

Louis last week.

And um, one of the things that I haven't heard a lot about, and to be full transparency, I wasn't able to make every workshop.

So this, I could be wrong about this, but I'm not hearing a lot in these discussions about what we're intending to do to address the needs of the unhoused population.

And in East St.

Louis, um, they've really it's pretty impressive the way they've um used container homes to create uh small communities for um unhoused folks.

And they don't leave them there permanently, right?

It's uh it's a staged process where but they get them off the streets and into these container homes.

I'd like to know whether or not what what discussion has been done or heard uh during this six month process about the unhoused issue and to is there any serious talk about using container homes in order to help fill this need?

Uh and I just one of the reasons I bringing it up is because you know, we have uh um a business, a small business uh in Buffalo Grove that I I know the which is in my district and in member Altenburg's, and I've talked to the owner, and she is very interested in trying to help solve the problem with her product.

Uh and so I'd just like to know those two issues, like how much has the unhoused uh problem been addressed, and what are the some of the potential solutions that have come up and specifically is container homes one of them.

So before I I have Dominic talk about the homeless strategies, I'll I'll first um briefly touch on the sort of container homes, modular construction, that then that sort of part of the housing production um sort of range of options.

The I think the bottom line is that the development community is interested in finding ways to reduce costs associated with housing production.

Um they also want where they're looking for quality.

And and I think that's something that communities are looking for as well.

They want to make sure that housing production is quality production that meets all the relevant um safety codes.

There is a growing uh effort to at the at the national level to really start revisiting this this concept of modular construction, not just container homes, but modular units that are built elsewhere.

And there's some real advantages to modular construction.

You know, um the one of the biggest issues with a unit that's built on site is quality control.

And quality control, you know, uh is a really critical determinant of the future condition of that unit.

When you have a building that's being built from scratch from the ground up, exposed to the elements and subject to the vagaries of you know the the workers that are you know that are in involved in in putting the boards together and and laying the foundation, everything that they do, there are opportunities for mistakes.

Um obviously local government has the responsibility, as does the contractor to make sure that those mistakes are minimized, and so we can maintain safe buildings, but the advantage of modular units, um, whether they're assembled in whole or in part in a factory setting, is that quality control is guaranteed through the manufacturing process.

And so recognizing that that's gonna save, you know, uh a lot of heartache down the line if it's done right, that is becoming an increasing um option for developers to pursue their projects.

Um at this point, there's not a gigantic difference in the cost associated with that, but they're looking at ways in which they can they can continue to bring costs down with modular construction to make it a more attractive incentive for uh developers to use.

I think the the flip side of that is that it's new, it's a new product.

It's not something that's necessarily universally appreciated among municipalities, local governments in general.

Um, you know, Lake County has a modular home sort of certification program in place.

Uh, that's not a universal um, that's not a universal approach.

A lot of communities don't allow modular construction.

Um, and I think that housing lakes phase two process gives us an opportunity to take a deep dive into those types of approaches.

Do a mobile workshop, visit a factory, see how it's done, you know, identify opportunities to incorporate modular construction into the local sort of palette of options for developers.

So am I correct in inferring that in pillar four the communications, you intend specifically to try to educate communities and the public about the advantages of modular homes.

I think we we we definitely have opportunities throughout the really that pillar and the regulatory reform pillar to look at to look at modular construction as an option as well.

And I would like to suggest because of the environmental advantages, the inventor of the environment by you know, there's a difference between modular homes that are created from scratch and reusing containers, right?

Uh, you know, reduce reuse recycle.

Uh I I'd like to suggest that um the messaging and the work done in all four pillars in order to um create a lot more acceptance of modular homes include clear explanations about how you know reusing containers is gonna be better for the environment rather than creating modular homes from scratch in a factory.

Uh you could all I'd also love to see um the potential if we're already gonna be trying to promote the the use of ADUs, then I'd like to see some um communication about how container homes would make excellent ADU uh units.

Uh and then the last thing I wanted to ask is, and this is more about I believe it was pillar number one about changing policy.

Um there's an organization called Yimbi, yes, in my backyard, uh a pro housing movement advocating for increased housing density, reduced zoning restrictions, and improve public transit uh in Illinois.

It according to my research, it's led by abundant housing Illinois.

Um, and I'm wondering, you know, it looks like just some highlights from from what Yimbi has achieved in Illinois in late 2025.

Yimbi advocates successfully helped pass the Northern Illinois Transit Act, which removes outdated parking mandates near transit hubs.

So that sounds like I'm I'm not sure if I'm reading this correctly, but that sounds like like that's been taken care of everywhere in the state now, right?

So, or do we still have problems uh with things like uh parking mandates near transit hubs?

Like what and I guess I'm just curious what if any uh cooperation or partnership is there uh because between Housing Lake and this organization, Abundant Housing Illinois or Yimby, because it sounds like you know, at least some of the work that's gonna be need need to be done in pillar number four is gonna involve statewide advocacy, me asking for changes at the state level.

So I'm curious if if any of any work has been done on collaborating with those organizations.

So one of the things that our initiative is has done from day one is to do the sort of the outreach and environmental scan beyond our borders to to get ideas and inspiration and advice and feedback from potential partners really outside of Lake County.

And that's you know pointing, in fact, they're you know, the one of the earliest engagements that we had in this undertaking was to have uh a dialogue with the the Dane County folks in Wisconsin over like their regional initiative.

And so uh to give us ideas in terms of terms of how to how to chart a path for our region.

And so there's a lot of good the a lot of good ideas that are coming from other sectors and other parts of the state and even parts of the country where we could get inspiration and and some you know value-added um, you know, engagement.

And so working with other sort of stakeholders within the state is is certainly something that we're gonna be looking at.

But you haven't connected with those MD or abundant housing Illinois.

No, we have we do have like we we, you know, the the law that was recently passed that's gonna be taking effect this year.

We're we're obviously already starting to look at the the transit nodes that are gonna be affected within the lake county area, or those are already being mapped to find out like which which sort of uh transit nodes are going to have these uh these parking relax sort of relaxed parking rules.

Um but uh that is a that's a a law that's going to take effect and it's you know communities are gonna have to deal with it.

Fortunately, it makes sense.

Um if you have a unit within walking distance of a train station, you you there's a likelihood that you're gonna have you know less of a need to drive a car.

And so with the ability to to um the state's ability to impact parking within those areas, it's sort of it's a in all in some ways it's a problem that's you know been searching for a solution.

And and the state just should just sort of, you know, I think was really being thoughtful about how they approach that, um, not imposing an undue burden on these communities.

And so it it is something that's that's already in effect, we're already looking at it.

Have we partnered with that organization?

Not yet, but there might be opportunities and a good reason to do so later.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So just like member Casmin said, I I am very impressed with how this whole housing leg project has gone so far.

You know, you've done an amazing job.

Um, trying to galvanize all our towns in the county and get them to realize um this very important issue, and it's something you know, getting them to realize that we really need to try to work together and tackle it.

So in the next phase, um have we thought about you know, meeting with the leaders of the towns one-on-one, trying to maybe uh work with them on uh discussing what a future plan might be for their particular town and how they could embrace these types of concepts.

That's one yeah, those conversations are already happening.

Okay, good.

Good.

And uh, you know, I think that we're gonna see a lot of discussion in the groups in the workshops themselves, but also sidebar conversations as much as we can, as often as we can around you know, local opportunities to increase housing production.

So those conversations are that they're gonna be happening organically as they are, you know, as we become aware of opportunities in town A or town B.

Um, and so that engagement strategy is is really going to be a core component of this next phase.

Okay, good.

I'm glad to hear that.

Um, I also am wondering.

So does the state have any sorts of incentives or tools that we can be kind of pushing in front of the different municipalities and saying, you know, have you looked at this?

Have you looked at that?

You know, kind of incentivizing them even more to want to do these things.

There it won't feel like a financial hit.

It's gonna feel like uh, you know, there's some help out there.

So the the LITEC program is widely known within our uh municipal communities.

I think that um leadership is you know aware of of that state program, um, and they're becoming aware of uh of the more recent effort to expand that program to to potentially bring in more you know tax credit dollars into the into the the you know housing production within within the state.

I think that um what's going to be critical is you know to the extent that you know there is a sort of a legislative process involved in you know expanding sort of the range of incentives at the state level, it's gonna be important for us to partner with our municipal counterparts to lobby for those changes.

Um when they you know when when the states start when the state starts to really develop a strategy that could that that has a legislative component.

And so I think that there's going to be a real opportunity to engage communities across the across Lake County and beyond in sort of joint um advocacy for those changes happening at the state level because the state the communities already know that these incentives are there.

Um they're just not enough to support the the scale of housing production that's affordable that we're gonna need to move the needle in this in this crisis.

Okay.

Um so we should definitely be having some conversations with our legislators and brainstorming, you know, what kinds of things are possible and what we could be doing, and maybe we could have conversations with Brenda O'Connell about every day every day.

We're talking with Ida.

Because she probably knows a little more than we do about what's available at the state level and what they possibly could be doing to help us even more.

So the the governor developed uh a sort of a white paper panel, um, the missing middle task force that um was charged with sort of identifying a range of different state level changes that could um increase housing production within the state.

Um that missing middle report was completed uh middle of late last year.

And so there's a huge continuum of sort of options that are embedded within that report that could form the basis, uh, some of them can form the basis of like legislative initiatives at the state level.

charged with sort of identifying a a range of different state level changes that could um increase housing production within the state um and that missing middle report was completed uh middle of late last year and so there's a huge continuum of sort of options that are embedded within that report that could form the basis uh some some of them can form the basis of like legislative initiatives at the state level so yeah we're excited about what could come down the pike and um and we'll be mobilized to to start you know working on a lobbying strategy to to make sure that some of these things don't get bogged down in the legislative process well that's also something we could be talking about in our legislative committee as well and coming out of in the current years state program we have that we have that specific topic on monitor already to see what comes out of it.

Okay I'm glad to hear that one last thing so have you seen I mean I've I've seen some stories and um things about these very small homes like almost like miniature homes tiny homes yeah I've seen some different um programs about it information about it is that something you know we would consider maybe at some point in the county absolutely um you know housing typologies run the gamut from multifamily to small units detached to you know single family detached there's a whole bunch of different choices in housing production that we could be making um and tiny homes might be one of those approaches that we we lean into uh ADUs are definitely um part of our toolkit or strategy but you know an ADU is by its nature a smaller unit than the main unit on a property and so you know you could conceivably you know introduce as part of an ordinance accommodations for very small units small buildings in fact our current um ADU ordinance for the unincorporated area limits the size of those units to a thousand square feet or less which is a relatively small footprint and so we already have sort of that tiny home accommodation within the unincorporated area.

I think the challenge is for the uh unincorporated areas the ADUs are only currently allowed on prop properties in certain zones on parcels of land that are at least two acres okay and so there's an opportunity right there for the unincorporated regulations to to be revisited and tweaked to allow for ADUs in a broader range of of you know of of lot sizes.

Okay.

All right thank you very much and thanks for all your work on this Eric I know you put a tremendous amount of time into this and we really appreciate it.

I have a few comments I have I have a question member cosman you have we do need to have we have another item still in front of us so no I know I'm just I'm just saying just so you know um so I had a few questions first thanks so much guys for for coming today we really appreciate it.

Um obviously it's been a ton of work that's been put into this um I have a few questions and comments one is um member Maine mentioned um I think a coming around you know us taking the lead and showing others right and so I know you just mentioned Eric the restriction on ADUs being two acres I'm sure we have a ton of dismarket incentives going on right now right what is what is the goal and timeline of re establishing relooking and putting our money our was it money or where our mouth where our money is or I don't know the expression.

Right because unless we start to do it I just don't see others and we have something to then champion and talk about we did something about this.

So what is what is our thought process around that.

So we're we look at this as sort of a a step by step process um as we look forward to the the regulatory reform pillar being you know initiated over the next several months before we even get there we're going to be bringing these as I mentioned before in the presentation that we're going to be bringing these these homegrown amendments through our our ZBA process related to opportunities to increase density and to reduce process timelines for certain types of larger scale developments in the unincorporated area.

And so part of our part of our strategy for those amendments is to take advantage of that opportunity as an opportunity to showcase what can be done.

Like here's an here's an example, folks, of you know, uh a um whether it's a a process streamline or a an increased incentive for density to offer up to communities as again an example of what can be done when you you know put your mind to it.

And so that's gonna be our first foray into um sort of call them housing production best practices, even before we get to the sort of the I'll call them the regulatory best practices toolkit that we'll be developing through that pillar one strategy.

Um but as we get into that process, we're gonna learn about opportunities at the same time that our municipal counterparts are going to be learning.

We're gonna be developing strategies together based on breast best practices that have been tried and tested in other parts of the country.

And so as we get through that process, we're gonna start adding additional um components to our ordinance that are gonna um allow for increased density, you know, increased process streamlining and other incentives to increase housing supply.

So I so my part of my question though is like like the timeline.

Like what I'm what I what I'm this report Kevin Constable came into us in 2023, right?

It's now 2026.

Um crisis not going away, right?

So I just think we need to prioritize action over we know like there's been a lot of work done on what can happen, right?

And other states have done it.

So I just would say like we just need to take some steps, right?

And start to do some things and and just do some, you know, like I I don't want to I don't want to vote on this in 2029.

Right.

You'll be voting on this in 2026.

Okay.

The amendment the amendments that we're working on right now, yeah, you will be voting on in 2026.

Okay.

And as we move forward to 2027, 2028, you will have other opportunities to vote on changes to our regulations.

Okay.

That will be a you know, adding to the options available to development.

Okay.

And and I only say that just because it's been going like it's just gonna get worse, right?

And so we just if whatever action we can take, I just want to encourage.

Um, the other question I had was if I think about the housing needs we've talked about, the missing middle, right?

Affordability, I would say as I look at the demographics, senior housing to me is paramount, right?

Where I think one out of every five individuals in the state of Illinois will be over the age of 65 by the year 2035, right?

20 percent of our of our every one at one out of every five people in the state will be over 65 years old.

To me, if we want them to stay in Illinois, what's that?

What's that?

What's that in?

We almost have that here.

Yeah, right.

So my point my point being we're we're gonna be looking like Japan.

Right.

And they're they've been thinking about this for a long time.

I don't want people to leave Illinois um as they age, right?

And I think increasingly we're gonna keep having that issue here.

So I would just think as we think about where do we want to prioritize seniors and affordable seems to me to be like the area.

So everything we can do, and I think member cat uh Keniznik, you mentioned like you know, city.

If I had to guess, the city has height opportunity and requirements on requiring affordable housing, right?

Like there's incentives and there's there's carrots and there's sticks, right?

And so we need to think about how how are the carrots and sticks that we can do to produce it.

Um this is where I'm gonna get like the the part of me that I just I'm I'll just be honest here.

We talk about changing hearts and minds, right?

And you mentioned those changing hearts and minds.

I'm personally not convinced that we're gonna change 50 communities, hearts and minds.

I'm just like I'm not I'm not convinced that that's gonna happen.

I don't I if we get 10%, maybe I think we need to think about a radical approach, right?

And other states have done radical approaches.

The state of and create, you know more than anyone on this, but I think California has and maybe Dominic, you guys both know has I think removed the exclusionary single family detached home zoning requirements, right?

Some version of that.

Montana has done something similar.

Uh Texas is doing something similar.

Uh Oregon is doing something similar.

My my point being that detached single family homes still occupies the vast majority, I would say, of the housing stock in Lake County, right?

And I do you have a sense of what percent of our homes are or residents live in single family detached ho homes in Lake County.

It's uh I believe it's in the report, the housing report, but we I can't say it's gonna be a large definitively it is a large majority.

There's a large majority of the housing stock within Lake County.

Yeah.

Now I would say at the risk of extending this conversation, ad nauseum.

Yeah, I would say that the strategy that's more likely going to happen in Illinois is a is a is rather than a elimination of single family zoning districts.

Um I could see changes to the way, at least at the local level, changes to the way those single family districts are developed and mature.

And one of the strategies that many regions are looking at is what they call the sort of gentle density, the missing middle um approach to sort of reinvigorating single family districts, where instead of simply allowing single family detached homes in those districts, opening up the option for at certain locations additional, like additional density, additional, you know, number of units, you know, different types of housing like duplexes or or or triplexes.

And that's not going to be a solution that's that's that's uh adapted region wide, but that's something that could certainly, you know, I think resonate with some of the communities that we're working with here.

But at the state level, um I I would be uh I would not be um imagining a scenario in which the state anytime soon is going to be outlawing single family residential zones.

I think the you know that's something that's probably for many communities across the state a bridge too far at this point.

And I think I just I want to disagree in the sense that California is three times the size of our state, right?

Or more, four times maybe, and they they reached a crisis point, right?

Where people are driving three hours to get to from the inland empire to Los Angeles and work, right?

We're not there yet, but clearly we keep talking about tens of thousands of units that we we are under having of what we need in the community.

Illinois continues to lose population.

We don't, thankfully, but I just think that, and I I know I know that Illinois is slow moving in many ways, but I think we just need to, and I don't expect you and Dominic to be solving for this, but I think that we need to maybe talk to our legit legislative committee, and it's I'll I'll make sure I do to John about saying, hey, I think we just need to be much more deliberate and telling our legislators that the status quo is not acceptable.

Like it's just not working.

And I really do think that market forces could be at play, but we are hampering developers.

I I mean, this is where I think that the ingenuity of our developers is there, but because of NIMBYism, because of our regulations, because of what we've done to them, that the financial incentives simply aren't there, right?

And I think that we just need to, and again, I'll take it upon myself, but I think we just need to say, guys, it's no longer working, right?

So we can we can do we can I think like it's a dual track.

We need to do what everything we can in convincing our communities, but I've seen very little happen.

I there's been great some great some some great success, right?

And I think like Highland Park has a lot of like urban development, right?

More more urban development.

But what happened in Libertyville a while ago, right, where they wouldn't allow something, and then just you can't, right?

Because of single family detached zoning, you can't, right?

And so, and there's an incentive to build bigger homes and more valuable homes than affordable homes, right?

There's just that incentive, right?

You can cater to, and that's what our societies becoming, right?

We're becoming people or some people are dramatically well off, and then a lot of societies dramatically not well off, right?

And so I I just think that we're we're not we're in crisis mode, and so I think if we can just do whatever we can to convince our legislators that we we need to like, we just there's got to be a radical approach, right, to to what we do.

And so I think if we can just do whatever we can to convince our legislators that we we need to like we just there's gotta be a radical approach, right, to what we do.

And that's more commentary than than anything else.

And I and I think that you know, more to come on the missing middle uh task force report that the governor put out, you know, as we talked early on in the discussion, the governor as a result of that report essentially announced a broad plan.

That's the beginning of the conversation on um sort of housing strategies at the state level.

And I think that you know, to the extent that we already have in our legislative program a commitment to keeping an eye on how that develops and to plug in support where appropriate is I think a step in the right direction for that, for sure.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um member Casbin, the member um Altemberg.

Um I think one thing that we have to be careful about is we want people to cooperatively participate in this housing lake um effort.

So we we want to make sure that our rhetoric um vis-a-vis legislation is is careful.

And I think the missing middle report has some um bold ideas in it.

Um I think um rather than us going to legisl, well, I mean, we should go to legislators, and it it is in our legislative agenda, any any legislation having to do with that missing middle task force recommendations.

Um it might even be more effective for community members and municipalities who are of like mind to go to legislators because legislators have uh have a political uh they they need the political will behind them in order to feel safe voting in favor of some of these um task force recommendations.

So I think um maybe uh communication with those municipalities to talk about hey, could you contact your legislators, just let them know you're on board um with any legislation that might come up.

I think it would it might it would really, I think sway legislators toward the direction of voting in favor of of reasonable um uh steps they can take.

Um another thing is um so our timeline is I I also have received the feedback that okay, well, what is Lake County doing?

And it's good to know that our timeline is pretty tight here.

I'm wondering if there is a way that we could get uh feedback from developers, from community members as we're trying to reform this process.

The other day I just I even heard from someone, um, a contact of mine, it's that they heard from developers, so third hand, but that the water and sewer hookups are different everywhere.

And and that was really challenging sometimes for developers.

And if we could, you know, maybe look at public works and you know, make sure it's all the way goes all the way through the county, uh, all of these ideas of of simplification and streamlining.

Um, and just make sure that our fee structures for permits and our fee structures for you know, um, revisions and whatnot are in line with uh with us wanting to promote housing development um just all the way through.

Um the other thing I was thinking about is I and I received the in discussions with the municipality recently, they mentioned that really when they look at um uh increase in density um request, a lot of their decision-making process is based on the already existing water and sewer infrastructure and utility infrastructure in general.

Um I'm wondering if there's funding available for that kind of infrastructure project that would help support some of this dense, it's easy to say, yeah.

And that's where I mean, we have sometimes I think the intersect with the state could be challenging because if you're saying we want you to by default have all of this density, we're essentially saying to municipalities, yeah, you've got to beef up your your uh utility infrastructure without maybe you know uh uh accompanying funding.

So I think um I don't know if there's funding available for that kind of infrastructure expansion or or what that looks like.

So it it I think it it depends on the it depends on the nature of the infrastructure improvement.

I mean, there are certain, for example, even within our C D BG program, we have infrastructure dollars available for that type of of work to expand lines to serve specific developments or to expand along certain corridors to make them more viable for densification.

Um and also, you know, there every you know every fiscal year at the state level, there's uh infrastructure projects that are being funded by the state uh where there's a recognition that it is a vital economic development, for example.

Um we have to also think about other ways in which we can fund infrastructure, um, which is one of the key drivers for density, as you said.

And so, you know, to the extent that there are other sort of local opportunities, whether they're sort of a you know, sort of a taxing district strategy or what have you, development incentives that would um pay for a portion of the cost of infrastructure to serve new development.

That's that's something that obviously is gonna need to be part of the conversations around reducing the overall costs of new development, bringing bringing in dollars to assist with that financing stack for new development to make it cheaper per unit.

That's great.

Um another thing I was thinking about was um as we move forward, um there are certain linchpin things that um move communities and I would say late county wide people really care about their schools.

Um incorporate an effort to have some outreach to uh school district administration and school boards just to help them understand.

I I know it came up in the uh um the big event um that they found that actually the increasing the density does not have an adverse effect on school districts necessarily because um there's declining enrollment, there's a lot of declining enrollment in Lake County.

Um if there's a way to um maybe meet those myths, you know, myths and realities and maybe do some kind of workshop or some kind of outreach with school districts with with with facts about that, just so that because that that pushback could I think be significant in certain areas.

Yeah, and I think that's one of the that's one of gonna be one of the stickier uh conversations that we have as part of this process.

But early on, we wanted to make sure that in even impaneling this task force to begin with, that we had educators front and center part of the conversation.

That's why we had you know representative from you know a variety of school districts there with us at the at the kickoff, and then Dr.

Carter stayed with us throughout the the duration of the program.

Um I think that obviously development has costs and benefits, and so we have to just sort of navigate how to hit that sweet spot with our school districts, just like we do with everything else.

Great.

Thank you.

Did you guys think we would be spending 75 minutes?

I mean, you can this is probably this is a huge thing.

This is probably the most important thing that I think we're facing.

Yes, right.

And so thank you for everything you guys have done.

Um it's you know, mountains of work.

So we couldn't be more thankful for everything, Eric and Dominic and really every of the staff and and every all those meetings, you know, everything you guys did to pull that together.

So thank you so much.

Um but the next thing is what we need to do, right?

To make sure that we get to some of your goals.

So let me go through 8.4 is a resolution approving a memorandum of understanding between Lake County and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, also known as CMAP, to advance the work of Lake County Coalition for Housing.

Can I have a motion?

Motion by Member Kasman, second by member Cunningham.

Guys wanna talk through this a little bit.

So we can talk a little bit about the the MOU itself.

Um, this is a a um a document that sort of charts the course uh for the next three years with our partner CMAP.

As you all know, they played an instrumental part in helping organize phase one for the program.

Together, we um the core team of county staff from uh our office and county administration worked with um our partners, our counterparts in CMAP to lay out the program.

We met on a weekly basis.

We're gonna continue that uh effort with CMAP um throughout the next three years to coordinate all aspects of the um the implementation phase across the four pillars.

It lays out a sets of duties and responsibilities for each of the parties.

Um it is a an aspirational document in the sense that it's not a formal contract, but it does provide both parties with a clear understanding of the partnership ahead as we go into this next phase.

And so I'd be looking for an approval of this at HCS and uh adoption by the county board at the next meeting.

I think we're all anxious for for it to happen.

So um, no, I don't know if we have any questions.

I I think the only question I have, and I don't want us get into too much detail about it right now, is just the funding aspects of it, right?

So we need to we need to have a funding solution for this.

Um let's not talk about it now because we have still a couple other items that we want to to talk about in the county administrative report.

But I would I would just say, and I uh obviously anyone please jump in here as well from the from the committee that um knowing it might be difficult to get funding from outside sources, I think we should also look internally to the county, right?

And I don't know if we've funded in the budget for 26 or not, but uh I don't want to put that off the table, right?

So we're looking at a an all all the above strategy.

We're looking at ways in which the county can can direct directly contribute, where CMAP can directly contribute and where we can get funds outside of our two respective organizations.

And so that that discussion's ongoing right now.

Okay.

And I guess my only point would be if if if we need to be, you know, the funder, the county in some degree, like you know, bring it to us.

And I think you know, we we we want to, you know, we debate it, discuss it, but I I I think that uh so many members feel the urgency of this issue that we want to get some work done.

And if that is if we're the lender of last resort, then perhaps that's something that we can be.

Um questions.

No, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you, gentlemen.

And and really, um all of us couldn't be can be more thankful for all the work that you guys have done on this.

So thank you so much.

Agreed, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Um item nine, county administrators reports.

Good morning, Patrice Sutton, County Administrator.

I'll be extremely brief.

Um, at our last meeting, we did talk to you about a federal funding safety net for particularly our health department workforce development and community development.

Um, we have worked very diligently with um the partners you see before you today, as well as Chris Hoff and Jennifer Sereno, and we will be coming forward to you the FA committee on Thursday with a $2 million emergency appropriation request for a safety net fund.

We are going straight to finance and administrative committee because it's under their purview to emergency appropriate dollars.

Um, but we anticipate having a robust discussion to talk about that process.

I certainly wanted to make sure that this committee was aware that that conversation will be held on Thursday morning at 8:30 at the FNA committee questions.

I just had I had one question, Patrice.

So it's it's a two million dollar is that we said two million.

Yes.

So um we've identified two million dollars, two million dollars at this point that's vulnerable or or more, but at least two would would help before we've identified 34 million dollars.

Not two.

Right.

And then the 60 day portion um that's at risk is roughly four point, it's four plus million dollars.

Um, and then um what we've anticipated is that hopefully the worst case scenario is not gonna all happen at once.

So we'd like to start with two million dollars and see how it goes.

Okay.

Yeah, member Altamer.

So thank you, Patrice, for all the work you're doing on this.

And I want to publicly say that this entire board is very concerned about the federal cuts that we see coming down the line, and we have all been very proactive in our committee work in our with our constituents in our communities, with our staff, trying to work on these issues and be prepared.

And I fully believe that we will be prepared if something a catastrophic happens with our funds.

We are going to be in a good situation where we're able to serve our constituents in the best way possible because we have been actively preparing for months on this.

Thank you.

Agreed.

This has been um a multi-departmental effort, and we're extremely grateful.

It's very complex, it's a very fluid situation.

So it has been something we've wanted to be very thoughtful on, but we have been working on it for months.

So thank you for acknowledging that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair, for for saying that.

That's that's it's important.

Um to acknowledge any any other no.

Okay, Patrice, you had one more item or or Lacy.

Dominic.

Oh, step up.

Real quick, I think last time I was here, we appropriated the two million dollars for the healthy houses program.

Um there was an official communication that went out yesterday.

Applications opened yesterday to submit uh for those funding.

So we want to just make sure we're getting the word out and you guys are aware um that that application for community partners isn't is now open.

Um it's scheduled to close in a month on April 2nd.

Um the link, I mean if you Google like County Healthy Houses, it'll come up.

Um there's also uh QR code that went out in that email, but if there's any any questions or concerns, uh please help us get the word out.

I did have a have a any any question.

I did have one question, Dominic.

Um so if I recogn in conversing with Lacey about this, it's for for units that have six or it's six or less units that have in its HVAC replacement or risk.

Or installation, yeah.

Or insulation.

For units, six units or less.

Correct.

Man, that feels specific, right?

I mean, but there's probably rationale for why, but is that are we going to be able to get to enough, we believe?

I do think so.

Um, yes, it is specific.

It has to do with the funding stream that it's actually a federal funding stream flowing through the state and what they consider as multifamily versus it, yes.

It is defined by the the funder in this case it's DCO.

So we are we are limited to six or fewer per per property.

Um I do I do think we'll get there.

Um we've already had over a dozen applications submitted just yesterday.

Oh, great.

Early on.

Um, but we are definitely trying to get the word out um as best we can.

Hopefully we get, you know, we're shooting for 50 to 100 properties.

Uh, I think I think we can do it.

Um, but we are on a tight timeline.

The money has to be spent by July 2027.

So it's uh it's a rush.

One more question for you on that, Dominic.

Do and I'm sure you guys already do this.

You reach out to every every community uh or municipality already.

Like, is there anything we can do?

I guess my question should can we send a letter out or anything saying urgent because often what happens is yeah, I think this is great.

I just don't have enough time, or someone's on vacation with it's only a six-week window.

Can I get a d or what we're talking less now, right?

Four weeks.

Yeah.

We have, I mean, we definitely went out.

I made sure to personally make sure that some of the municipalities with high rental density are are saw the email or made aware.

Um, but anything that we can do to get it out there, um, let us know.

We tried the application itself, it's kind of a two-phased application.

The initial application is like a letter or not a letter, an interest form that really only takes a couple minutes to fill out.

It's almost like an intake form.

Hopefully, that incentivize people just to fill that out.

And then once you get into the system, we can work with you on the more in-depth second step of the application that involves income certification and things like that.

So we tried to make it easy.

Um, but yes, it's going to be uh a lot of work to get this money through and done in 14 months.

To that point, I would just encourage if you if you want any of us to do anything, you know, to get the word out.

If you have a form letter you want us to send out, like, hey, just put in your your mayor and your community development partner on it.

Like, please just know that we're we're that email that went, I mean the language in there, it's pretty short.

It just introduced a copy that language and any sort of communications, or just tell them to call or email.

I mean, there's an email set up specifically for this program, the QR code, just uh use so use what you sent.

Yeah, yes, yes, perfect.

Okay.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Any questions?

All right.

Executive session.

I don't believe we have a need.

Member remarks and requests.

I I just again, I know we've said this, but I just want to thank you guys for everything you've done on on on this um issue.

Um, you know, whatever we can do in terms of funding into the next in the next uh, you know, with with CMAP, you know, don't have like you know that, right?

Like we we are here to to help what we can do to get this going.

So um we're adjourned.