A. The village president and board of trustees of the village of Inverness, Cook County, Illinois, find that the village of Inverness, Cook County, Illinois (the "village") is a home rule municipal corporation as provided in article VII, section 6 of the 1970 constitution of the state of Illinois and, pursuant to said constitutional authority, may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare.
B. The village president and board of trustees further find that the availability of affordable housing in the village is a matter pertaining to the public health, safety and welfare and, therefore, the adoption of plans, ordinances, regulations and other legislative and administrative actions to provide for the development of affordable housing are matters pertaining to the government and affairs of the village and, consequently, are within the constitutional grant of home rule authority to the village.
C. The village president and board of trustees further find that the few areas where infrastructure for public sanitary sewers and a public water service might be available have already been developed, and the remainder of the village has already fully been developed with single-family homes which are supported by private wells and individual sewage disposal systems, and to support redevelopment of existing single-family homes or single- family lots for this purpose would unfairly impact existing homeowners and their respective neighborhoods and would create an environmental disaster in terms of the health and sanitation regulations of this code which govern the installation and maintenance of individual private sewage disposal systems.
D. The village president and board of trustees further find that the state of Illinois has enacted the affordable housing, planning and appeal act, public act 93-595, effective January 1, 2004, as amended by public act 93-678, and as now or hereafter amended (collectively, the "act"), which provides for the designation of particular municipalities in the state as either "exempt" or "nonexempt", based on the amount of housing in those municipalities determined under the act to be "affordable", requires nonexempt municipalities to develop and submit to the state on or before April 1, 2005, an "affordable housing plan", and provides that, beginning January 1, 2009, developers who have been denied land use approvals by a "nonexempt" municipality may appeal such a decision to a "state housing appeals board", in order to seek relief from the decision.
E. The village president and board of trustees further find that the village has been identified by the Illinois housing development authority as a municipality that will be "nonexempt" under the act and, therefore, would, but for this chapter, be subject to the requirements of the act aforesaid, including possible appeal of local land use decisions to the state housing appeals board.
F. The village president and board of trustees further find that the act does not preempt home rule authority and that there is considerable uncertainty over provisions of the act governing local land use decisions and possible loss of local control over those decisions, and that the public interest would be best served by the village not ceding its final authority over local land use decisions to a state board or commission.
G. The village president and board of trustees further find that the act constitutes both an unfunded mandate, the implementation of which would require local expenditures which will result in little, if any, local impact and a "one size fits all" approach that does not consider the unique circumstances of individual communities, including, but not limited to, for example, the fact that the village of Inverness is fully developed, the fact that the village has extremely limited infrastructure, and the fact that a significant number of affordable housing units are available immediately adjacent to or within a short distance of the village of Inverness.
H. The village president and board of trustees further find that it is extremely unlikely that any reasonable opportunity for the development of affordable housing within the village will be identified in the foreseeable future, given the continually increasing cost of land within the village, which makes it prohibitive to implement.
I. The village president and board of trustees further find that the village will give due consideration to any viable opportunity to accommodate new affordable housing options within the village in the unlikely event that any such opportunities are ever presented to develop or redevelop significant parcels for residential uses in the village of Inverness for this purpose, and the village pledges to work on a cooperative basis with any such proposed developer(s) to facilitate the development of affordable housing in Inverness consistent with the other well reasoned zoning, planning and environmental policies of the village.
J. The village president and board of trustees further find that the village, as a home rule municipality, has the authority to adopt ordinances and to promulgate ordinances, rules and regulations that pertain to its government and affairs. Article 7, section 6(a) of the Illinois constitution provides that "[. . .] Except as limited by this section, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs including, but not limited to, the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare". The act does not preempt home rule authority, based on the following:
1. In article 7, section 6(m), the Illinois constitution specifically provides that "powers and functions of home rule units shall be construed liberally".
2. The general powers granted in section 6(a) continue in force even if the general assembly adopts less stringent or conflicting statutes, so long as the general assembly does not preempt the use of home rule powers.
3. The general assembly has not preempted the power of the village to except itself from the coverage of the act. The act does not contain home rule preemption, and the general assembly failed to approve the act by the three-fifths (3/5) majority constitutionally required to preempt the powers of a home rule unit.
4. The act does not supersede the powers of home rule units of local government.
5. In Kalodimos v. Village Of Morton Grove, 103 Ill.2d 483, 502, 470 N.E.2d 266 (1984), the Illinois supreme court found that "Home rule is predicated on the assumption that problems in which local governments have a legitimate and substantial interest should be open to local solution and reasonable experimentation to meet local needs, free from veto by voters and elected representatives of other parts of the state who might disagree with the particular approach advanced by the representatives of the locality involved or fail to appreciate the local perception of the problem".
6. The act does not supersede the powers of home rule units of local government.
7. The act does not contain any express statement that affordable housing is purely a matter of statewide interest or give the state exclusive authority over affordable housing. On the contrary, the act provides that each nonexempt unit of local government establish its own plans and policies for achieving levels of affordable housing.
8. The act's requirement of local based planning is inconsistent with the type of exclusive state control required for home rule preemption. This inconsistency is apparent not only in the language of the act but also in the application of the act. IHDA was charged with the responsibility of determining which communities fell within the ambit of the act. Out of the one thousand two hundred ninety eight (1,298) municipalities in the state, IHDA determined that the act applied only to forty nine (49) municipalities, or municipalities constituting approximately 4.7 percent of the state's population based on the 2000 census. All of the nonexempt communities identified by IHDA are in Cook, Lake, DuPage, Will, McHenry or Kane counties. Not one is downstate. IHDA's determination further validates that affordable housing is not purely a matter of statewide interest or concern.
9. The act does not specifically limit local governments' concurrent exercise of municipal planning, development and zoning power or specifically declare the state's exercise of those powers under the act to be exclusive. Rather, the opposite is true. The act requires the local exercise of authority and discretion in establishing plans and implementing regulations relating to affordable housing.
10. There is no indication in the act that the provision of affordable housing and the act's attendant derogation of local land use planning and zoning regulations are not a subject within a home rule unit's government and affairs.
11. The house floor debate on the act contains numerous statements and representations by the act's sponsor, Representative Sloane, that the act was not intended to apply to home rule units of local government.
K. The village president and board of trustees further find that compliance by the village of Inverness with the act is impractical and is not in the best interests of the village.
L. The village president and board of trustees further find that the village of Inverness comprehensively regulates planning, zoning and development within its boundaries.
M. The village president and board of trustees further find that the village also intends that pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, all decisions about Inverness' housing needs and future development will continue to be made at the local level and not be subject to appeal to a state board or commission.
N. The village president and board of trustees further find that, based on all the foregoing, the village intends this chapter to constitute the total, comprehensive and exclusive regulation of the subject matter of affordable housing within the village of Inverness generally, by the village in the exercise of the village's home rule authority, notwithstanding any provision of the act, and that this chapter shall totally displace and preempt the act and all its provisions as permitted under the village's constitutional home rule authority. (Ord. 2005-795, 3-8-2005)