The Affordable Housing Task Force held its first meeting and it “went very well,” said Trustee Beth Augustine, the village board’s liaison.
“We had 28 residents appointed to the group and 24 were able to show up. That’s good considering work and summer, things like that,” she said on July 3.
The meeting was held on June 30. Future meetings will be held on the fourth Wednesday of each month, starting in September.
The initial meeting was “to get the lay of the land,” Augustine said.
“It’s a real impressive group. Residents should feel really good about it. There are renters, owners. … The issue we’re looking at is how do we put policies and programs in place to address keeping part of the village affordable,” she said.
Task force members “live all over town,” she noted.
One resident at the village board meeting of June 22 asked why the task force does not have a budget, Augustine said. She noted that a budget is not needed, calling the task force “more of a think tank.”
The task force will meet monthly over the next year and then report its findings and suggestions to the village board.
“We’ll see where it goes,” she said.
Augustine noted that affordability in La Grange has changed over time.
“When my mom grew up here, huge parts of La Grange were affordable. Now, almost no part of town is affordable,” she said, noting how $1.5 million homes are sometimes built beside those valued at $500,000.
“I don’t think the seven of us on the village board has studied it the way this group of curious people will,” she said.