By Rebecca HuvalThe Daily Northwestern

Evanston City Council members continued to debate changes to an affordable housing law passed in fall.

Aldermen looked at a study last month to see how much it would cost developers to build affordable housing. A proposed amendment would require developers of complexes with 25 units or more to make 3 percent of their units affordable.

This would replace the current system that aldermen passed in October.

The city considers a unit affordable if it is priced within reach of a family of four making less than Evanston’s median income – $72,400, according the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The October ordinance required developers to pay $40,000 per unit for 10 percent of the units they plan to build.

The council removed provisions in the original version of the ordinance that would have given developers the option of building affordable units on site instead of contributing to the housing fund. The city staff later determined that the ordinance violated federal and state law because it removed the choice to build on-site units. Since then, aldermen have debated several amendment options.

Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) asked for a study of the most recent proposal, said housing planner Donna Spicuzza.

The report examined developers’ returns for complexes with 50, 100, 150 and 200 units. Developers with 3 percent of their units set aside for affordable housing had an 8.1 percent return on average. Without inclusionary units, developers had a 10 percent return.

Valerie S. Kretchmer, president of a real estate and planning consulting company, presented the analysis to the Planning and Development Committee on Dec. 11.

Some officials said the report was strictly factual, but others said it was intended to persuade aldermen to oppose requirements for on-site units.

“She’s making an analysis, it doesn’t change the debate for me,” said Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd). “The advocates for affordable housing believe the developers make a decent profit for those less well-off to afford housing.”

Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) said he thinks the report was made too quickly and without sufficient data. The study was too negative and didn’t include developers who were successful with affordable housing, he said.

“I had the feeling (the report) was being done by forces who wanted to forestall the debate,” Moran said. “It was their last effort to come back with a negative cast. I don’t think it changed the terms of the debate, but it was an attempt to change them and sow a little more doubt into the discussion.”

Kretchmer also wrote in the report that the gap between affordable units and market-rate housing is widening, and new downtown projects have become more expensive.

“It was just an analysis based on the proposed ordinance and Evanston incidents,” Spicuzza said. “It’s very factual and analytical. What we wanted was something very unbiased and professional.”

Kretchmer wrote that projects with returns of less than 10 percent are “difficult to finance.”

Condominium sales in new Evanston buildings decreased from 71 in 2005 to 46 in 2006 through Sept. 15 .

The council also voted Dec. 11 to extend a moratorium on development in western Evanston until Feb. 10. The moratorium, in place since April, is intended to allow planners to finish designing a blueprint. for future development.

“It’s a big issue, we might as well get it right,” Moran said.

The city exempted the Bishop Freeman site to allow Cyrus Homes to continue plans to build a condominium there.

Reach Rebecca Huval at [email protected].