Winfield board approves resolution defending local zoning authority, opposes Pritzker’s ‘Section 8 Everywhere’ plan

WINFIELD — The Village of Winfield has joined a growing number of Illinois municipalities backing local control over zoning and land-use decisions, formally urging state officials to preserve municipal authority over housing and development policies.

The Village Board on April 2 adopted Resolution No. 2026-13, “A Resolution of the Village of Winfield in Support of Municipal Housing Authority.”

Trustees Lonks, Piscola, Zemaitis, and Sorgatz voted in favor of the measure. Trustee Hardy voted against the resolution, while Trustees Jacobs and Janowick were absent.

The resolution states that Winfield “has the responsibility to promote public health, safety and general welfare by regulating land use, density and development standards within the Village,” and argues that local zoning authority is necessary to separate incompatible land uses, protect property values, manage traffic flow and ensure adequate infrastructure.

Village officials also emphasized that land-use decisions are best made by municipal leaders familiar with the community’s specific needs and characteristics.

The measure further states that “community-led policies for land use and zoning are not causing a crisis of housing affordability or availability,” rejecting claims that local zoning authority is responsible for broader housing shortages.

The resolution comes amid an ongoing statewide debate over Gov. J.B. Pritzker-backed housing proposals aimed at increasing residential density and limiting certain local zoning restrictions across Illinois communities. Supporters of the proposals argue the changes are necessary to expand housing availability and improve affordability, while opponents contend the measures would weaken municipal control over development decisions.

In its findings, the Winfield board declared that existing municipal authority over land use and zoning is “essential for the continuing community vitality” of the village.

The resolution urges the Illinois General Assembly and governor to preserve municipal zoning authority “in its current form without additional restrictions on municipal governments and the communities they serve.”

Under the measure, the village clerk is directed to forward a copy of the resolution to the Illinois Municipal League.

The Illinois Municipal League, which represents all 1,294 cities, villages, and towns in the state, has led the opposition and circulated a model resolution that towns, including Winfield, have adopted. The league has offered its own alternative, the Reducing Expenses and Advancing Local (REAL) Housing Act, an incentive-based plan it says would expand housing without preempting local zoning.

The bills remain pending; a Senate committee took testimony in late April without a vote, and the spring session ends May 31.

Would Pritzker's plan bring more government-subsidized housing to Winfield?

For many residents who packed recent board discussions, the technical debate over zoning preemption comes down to a simpler question: whether the bill would bring more federally subsidized housing — including Section 8 tenants — to Winfield.

Pritzker's proposal itself does not specifically mandate subsidized Section 8 or "affordable" housing. 

But HB 5626 would make Section 8 expansion inevitable, deeming multi-unit buildings legal to construct "by right." The law would force single-family neighborhoods to allow apartments whose owners, by state law, aren't allowed to deny them to someone paying with a Section 8 voucher.

Illinois also has a separate law that continually pressures towns to add Section 8 housing.

The "Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act," or AHPAA, passed in 2003, requires municipalities where less than 10% of housing qualifies as "affordable" to adopt a plan to add more. Housing developers denied a permit for Section 8 projects in those towns can appeal to a state Housing Appeals Board that can override the local decision. 

A 2023 amendment, effective January 2026, broadened who may file such an appeal to include "housing advocacy" organizations, who commonly work with the developers to promote Section 8 projects.

There are currently 44 municipalities, including Burr Ridge, Hinsdale, Wayne, Oak Brook and Elmhurst in DuPage County, that the state claims don't have enough "affordable housing."

Part of the concern reflects the demographic change that has reshaped many inner-ring Cook County suburbs over the past half-century.

In Section 8-heavy Bellwood, for example, U.S. Census figures show the village went from about 1% Black in 1970 to roughly 70% by 1990; as of the 2020 Census it was about 68% Black and 27% Hispanic, with White residents under 3% of the population. Neighboring Maywood, also a Section 8 apartment hub, was about 60% Black and 34% Hispanic in 2020.

In a City Journal essay arguing for ending the Section 8 program, Manhattan Institute scholar Howard Husock wrote that the vouchers "ruin neighborhoods and perpetuate poverty," and reported that south suburban Cook County had absorbed a majority of the county housing authority's vouchers, citing residents and officials in towns such as Richton Park, Matteson and Riverdale who said the program imported disorder and pushed up local costs. 

Critics of Pritzker's plan make a similar argument today: that mandating apartments in single-family areas, combined with Illinois' ban on "source-of-income discrimination," will channel more voucher-based housing into communities that now have little.