Irving Park alderman pressed to scale back affordable housing project

Irving Park residents are calling on 33rd Ward Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez to downsize an affordable housing project geared toward Native Americans.

Developer Full Circle Communities, in partnership with Native American-led nonprofit Visionary Ventures, aims to build a seven-story, 45-unit apartment complex at 2907 West Irving Park Road, Block Club reported.

Rodriguez-Sanchez has resisted community efforts to scale down the development, claiming alterations would make it less likely to qualify for tax credits that allow the project to pencil out for its sponsors while keeping its rents low. Tax credits for the project are funded by the federal government and administered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

“Any changes made to the developer’s proposal now can and will put at risk the highly competitive [tax credits],” Rodriguez-Sanchez told the outlet. “And if we don’t have these tax credits, then we won’t have this affordable housing.”

The vacant development site had been downzoned in 2018 by former Ald. Deb Mell. Thus, the developer requires a zoning change from Rodriguez-Sanchez in order to proceed with the project. The development is part of a city-supported initiative that allocated $1 billion in 2021 through competitive low-income housing tax credits to fund 24 affordable developments.

Despite community pushback, the developers assert that the design and scale were determined in collaboration with the city’s Department of Planning and Development, and it is financially viable. The alderwoman plans to make a decision on the proposal in the near future.

Four neighborhood groups — the California Park Neighborhood Association, Horner Park Neighbors, The Residents of Irving Park and Irving Park East Neighborhood Association — are circulating a petition to garner support for halting the current proposal, citing concerns about the building’s size, insufficient parking and potential precedent-setting implications for future developments.

Rodriguez-Sanchez has engaged in a community-driven zoning process to gather input, but she clarified that this process is not equivalent to a community vote.

— Quinn Donoghue 

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