Naperville officials generally agree that tightening regulations on rental properties makes sense. Before they change the rules, however, they say they want to hear what everybody else thinks about the idea.
City Council members said proposed options for new rules governing apartments, duplexes and rental houses should be reviewed by such local entities as the city’s Housing Advisory Commission, the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation and city residents, to ensure they appropriately address crime risk, property maintenance and prevention of neighborhood blight.
Officials note that drug-related crime is reported in some of the city’s apartment developments, but their concerns also include enforcement of the existing municipal code. Such infractions often involve overgrown weeds, snow-covered sidewalks, walkways obstructed by parked cars or untrimmed bushes, lax building maintenance, or broken fences, staff say.
According to some council members, stricter regulations also could help prevent the sort of residential blight that can deteriorate neighboring home values. Some say they want to address the issue so landlords looking for properties in communities light on regulation won’t be drawn to Naperville. Member point to Aurora, which enacted a dwelling unit licensing program in 1982, as having stricter regulations than Naperville.
Other suburbs have more recently taken action on rentals. Highland Park last year implemented a rental registration component, collecting an annual $30 fee that helps cover an educational program for landlords. Officials in Skokie also amended the code a year ago to require property owners to take part in a village-administered seminar within three months of completing the mandatory rental housing registration process.
Local possibilities for implementing more stringent requirements, presented to the council in a staff report Tuesday, range from requiring participation in the city’s currently optional Crime Free Multi-Housing Program to yearly inspections, indoors and out, of the city’s 11,200 rental homes. Four of five of the rental dwellings are in duplexes or apartment buildings, according to city staff; the remainder are single-family structures.
Owner occupation levels vary from one town to the next. According to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2009-2013 American Community Survey, 76.4 percent of Naperville’s dwellings are inhabited by their owners. The rate in Downers Grove is 78.4 percent; in Wheaton, 71.7 percent; and Plainfield’s proportion is 88.2 percent, the federal figures show.
Some officials want assurance that safety would be a priority in any updated regulations. Councilman Doug Krause suggested the city consider requiring landlords to run criminal background and credit checks on all potential renters age 18 and older, as is done in Aurora.
More Top Picks Best Monitor Stands For Eye Level
Others would like to study the possibility of placing a limit on how much housing stock can be used for rentals. Calling the matter “a big point of contention” in some communities, council member Joe McElroy said there is a correlation between the proportion of rental properties in a neighborhood and the problems it experiences with code adherence and crime.
“You’re going to have more issues in the one where there’s more rentals. That’s just the way it is,” McElroy said.
Local landlord Dick Furstenau, who is running for City Council, addressed the council about the staff report and said he thinks the policy changes are worth a look.
“You’re going to get push back from a lot of different people, but I do think it’s a good thing, if it’s handled properly,” he said.
Bill Novack, head of the city’s Transportation, Engineering and Development department, said conversation about changing rental rules arose more than a year ago, rooted in worries that foreclosures were hindering neighborhood property values. Problems traced to renter-occupied properties are seen citywide and are not unique to specific areas, Novack said.
Twitter @scarlman