Rental regs rise again in Joliet

A debate simmering for years between landlords and neighborhood groups perked up again this week when a Joliet City Council committee took up the issue of inspecting single-family rental homes.

Joliet for the past decade has considered stronger regulation of single-family rentals at the insistence of neighborhood groups that say it’s overdue and the resistance of landlords who say it’s unnecessary.

The City Council in August delayed a vote on whether to add single-family homes to Joliet’s rental inspection program until at least October, but the issue was not taken up again, at least publicly, until Wednesday.

“Everybody’s where they’re at, and they’re not budging from that,” Assistant City Attorney Chris Regis told the Land Use and Legislative Committee.

Regis said he had met with a group of neighborhood and real estate representatives on the issue without any resolution to propose.

He suggested that the city could start with at least requiring registration of single-family rentals to get a better idea of how many exist in Joliet before another attempt is made to develop an inspection program.

Regis described an inspection program as “an ideal.”

“It’s not a reality right now, and everybody knows that,” he said.

The city’s Neighborhood Services Program staff has said it does not have the resources to add all single-family homes to its inspection program.

The city does inspect single-family rentals when complaints are made.

In August, city staff said 500 houses were in the inspection program. Including all single-family rentals would add an estimated 5,100 houses at a cost estimated at $500,000, staff said then.

“How many times are we going to say, ‘Have another meeting,’ ” Quinn Adamowski, former president of the Cathederal Area Preservation Association, told the committee, asking them to consider action on single-family rentals.

“I would urge you to make a political decision that is a benefit to the residents who are asking for this,” Adamowski said.

There was no proposal awaiting a vote by the committee. But Regis said he was looking for some guidance on what staff should do next.

Landlords said they should have more input before the city does anything.

“We were not aware of any meetings until we saw this on the agenda Monday,” said Britt Enix, vice president of the Joliet Regional Landlords Association, which did not have a representative at the recent discussions with Regis.

“The negatives of such a program have been laid out time and time again,” landlord Tanya Rand said, contending single-family rental inspections would overburden city staff, raise rents for tenants and lead to more vacant properties by chasing landlords away from Joliet.

Rand suggested that no proposal be developed for the full City Council to consider for six months while another attempt is made at a resolution.

“There are a lot of things that need to happen before this goes to full council – if it ever goes to full council,” she said.

Adamowski suggested while there is no formal proposal the council should consider putting a single-family inspection program in place incrementally to make it more practical for the city staff and budget.

“There is nothing on paper,” he said, “because every time we have paper come forward, there’s invariably discussion about why this can’t happen or why that can’t happen.”