{"id":22841,"date":"2025-06-02T20:27:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T20:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/?p=22841"},"modified":"2025-06-02T20:30:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T20:30:13","slug":"santa-fe-realtors-promote-diverse-housing-options-in-housing-strapped-region-2-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-4-2-4-2-2-3-2-4-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-3-2-3-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-2-2-3-2-2-4-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/homepage\/success-story\/mor-landuse0625","title":{"rendered":"Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS\u00ae Uses Land Use Initiative Program to Fend Off Steep Increase in Development Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Like much of the\u00a0nation, Lake County, Illinois, just north of Chicago, is experiencing a crisis-level housing shortage.\u00a0 So, earlier this year, when the County Commissioners fast-tracked a proposal to address the $886K budget deficit with revenue from a sharp increase in land development permit fees, it was especially perplexing.\u00a0 The Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS\u00ae\u00a0<\/strong><\/sup>sought an urgent review of the draft ordinance by the REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0Party\u2019s Land Use Initiative<\/a> program, and the results helped them to combat the effort, and get the ordinance tabled \u2013 for now.<\/p>\n

Michael Dobrow, the Illinois REALTORS\u00ae\u00a0<\/sup>Government Affairs Director working with the Lake County region, notes that the ordinance drafted by the County proposed a one-time fee increase of up to 20% on permitting,\u00a0and an automatic increase year-over-year.\u00a0 \u201cWe supported a housing study commissioned by the County that asserted that the local economy\u2019s success depends on ample housing, but that development is lagging because of high\u00a0costs and complex\u00a0permitting fees and red tape.\u00a0 So, floating a proposal to drastically raise permitting fees and create even more complex requirements just flew in the face of logic: if you\u2019re not selling enough lemonade, you don\u2019t raise the price of lemonade!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dobrow\u00a0reached out to the REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0Party and, within days, was on the phone with the legal experts at Robinson & Cole, LLC, the firm retained by the Land Use Initiative program to review and analyze zoning and land use legislation.\u00a0 \u201cNAR was very responsive, and so were the legal professionals, which was great, because we didn\u2019t have much time,\u201d he explains.\u00a0 \u201cThe process was quick, and we were able to make certain adjustments on the fly.\u00a0 The analysis confirmed our instincts, and we used it to inform both our strategy and our messaging, which focused on the need for greater transparency as well as affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dobrow\u00a0continues, \u201cThe County Commissioners listened to our members, who were all working together in one cohesive group, delivering our message through emails, phone calls, and public testimony.\u00a0 The LUI memo was a big part of our play book.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concerted effort driven by the local REALTORS\u00ae\u00a0<\/strong><\/sup>secured an 11-8 vote on the proposal, which kept it from moving forward.\u00a0 \u201cIf we had not resisted, this would have sailed through!\u201d states Dobrow.\u00a0 \u201cThe deferral is a real testament to the advocacy of local members, and the support of the state and national REALTOR organizations.\u201d\u00a0 He adds that, while the temporary stay was a key victory, it has also been an important step toward promoting thoughtful, pro-housing policies, rather than rushing punitive fee increases.\u00a0 \u201cIdeally, any proposal that is going to raise fees to develop housing, especially during a housing crisis, would undergo careful scrutiny.\u00a0 Ultimately, slowing it down, crunching the numbers and getting the authorities to \u2018show their work,\u2019 gets us better, more thoughtful government.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about how the Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0is working to protect the interests of property owners and aspiring property owners in Lake County, Illinois, contact Government Affairs Director Michael Dobrow at\u00a0mdobrow@illinoisrealtors.org<\/a>\u00a0or 847.951.3326.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The community of Lake County, Illinois suddenly found itself under threat of steep increases for land development permit fees. To combat the fast-tracked ordinance, the local REALTOR\u00ae organization stepped in with an analysis by the REALTOR\u00ae Party\u2019s Land Use Initiative program, and got the problematic legislation sent back to the drawing board. ","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,33,296],"tags":[1858,1277,501,1731],"class_list":["post-22841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-success-stories","category-success-story","tag-development-fees","tag-illinois-realtors","tag-land-use-initiative","tag-mainstreet"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22841"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22909,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22841\/revisions\/22909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}