Aldermen voted to make Ald. Gilbert Villegas chair of the Chicago City Council’s powerful Zoning Committee Wednesday, following a long-running stalemate that slowed development.
The monthslong standoff had recently shut down the critical committee’s meetings, grinding to a halt approvals for zoning changes needed to greenlight construction projects large and small.
“There’s a lot of people that want to build in this city, and I think we have to put the signal out there that Chicago is open for business,” Villegas said from the City Council floor after winning the seat.
The appointment came as a last-second twist, driven by members of the council Black Caucus who agreed to back Villegas in exchange for one of their members getting his former leadership post.
Villegas had for months jockeyed for the seat Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. vacated when he retired in July. But Ald. Bennett Lawson, the Zoning Committee’s vice chair and longtime interim leader, appeared to be a front-runner.
Villegas thanked Lawson for his work and praised him as “just a wealth of knowledge” during his victory-lap speech, a paltry consolation for the Wrigleyville alderman who will continue on as the committee’s vice chair after spending a majority of the term at the helm.
The vote put on clear display the powerful role ethnic groups play in controlling who takes the City Council’s most important seats. And it showed off the volatility at City Hall, where Mayor Brandon Johnson took a hands-off approach, doing little to influence how one of the most influential committees will be led.
After the vote, Villegas told reporters the city must “truly cut the red tape,” but shared few details on how he would achieve the goal of speeding up development.
He offered one specific: removing material requirements that often make affordable housing more expensive than market rate.
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But he did not directly answer when asked how he views some of the biggest policies and practices slowing development in Chicago, particularly the tradition of “aldermanic prerogative” in which aldermen give one another overwhelming control over which development projects move forward in their wards.
“I want to go ahead and find out, talk to my colleagues about an opportunity to look at reform, absolutely,” Villegas said.
He added that he hopes to lead the critical committee in the same way he led the Economic, Capital and Technology Development Committee: By taking cues from industry representatives to learn what pitfalls and city roadblocks must be addressed.
“I want to learn from some of my colleagues as to what they are doing that works. I want to talk about what I’m doing that works, and then figure out how we can work together,” he said.
Villegas, a Marine Corps veteran from the Northwest Side who has been 36th Ward alderman since 2015, once had his sights set on Washington but was trounced in the 2022 race for the 3rd Congressional District on the Northwest Side.
During the 2022 City Council remap process, Villegas was chair of the Latino Caucus had saw his ward redrawn into an oblong 8-mile noodle after losing a fight with the Black Caucus over how many majority Latino and Black seats the body should see. He has since been vocal in his complaints of what he said is a paucity of Latino representation in Johnson’s administration and his council leadership team.
As a part of Wednesday’s package that aldermen approved ultimately in a voice vote, Southwest Side Ald. Derrick Curtis, 18th, succeeded Villegas as head of the Economic Committee.
Curtis’ appointment was a key win for the aldermanic Black Caucus, which had tried for months to work out a deal that would land Villegas the Zoning seat while giving a Black alderman another leadership position.
Ald. Stephanie Coleman, Black Caucus chair, called it “befitting” that Villegas as a Latino alderman took the seat, which was first held during this term by former Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, also a Latino.
“However, we as a Black Caucus saw an opportunity that if one of the members was elevated, then one of the members of the Black Caucus with seniority would then have a moment in leadership,” she said.
But not all in the group she leads were happy.
Ald. David Moore, a third-term Black alderman who doesn’t have a leadership post, said he had been told he would get to lead the Economic Committee.
“People can’t be straight in this caucus. It’s a bunch of (expletive) up here. And you can quote me on that,” Moore said. “Quote me on that: It’s a bunch of (expletive) up in here.”
Lawson, who said he believed he had the votes to win earlier Wednesday, quickly left the meeting at its end. He later released a statement congratulating Villegas, thanking colleagues who supported him and saying it’s good that the committee finally has “a permanent chair with the staff, resources and authority that the people of Chicago deserve from this position.”
The freshman North Side alderman had led the committee for eight months beginning with Burnett’s departure, but since the start of the year showed an increasing unwillingness to continue as interim.
He did not hold meetings three times since January, an effort to pressure colleagues to finally make a decision on a permanent chair. Only an officially named head of Zoning could get critical perks like control over a staff budget and a seat on the Chicago Plan Commission, Lawson said.
Villegas said Lawson’s lack of seniority played a role in the outcome.
“As I explained to some of the freshmen, at some point you will be senior as well. And so you want to make sure that you have the ability to have that respected,” he said.
In past eras, aldermen ceded to mayors the choices for Zoning and other committee chairs. Johnson has taken a backseat approach compared to his predecessors, however, and stressed to reporters he wanted to be deliberate and ensure racial parity in City Council.
That was also a marked departure, too, from his earlier push as mayor-elect to scrap an independent council committee leadership plan and install his allies to top posts.
Now with just over a year left in this term, a staunch mayoral opponent has emerged victorious in the Zoning chair fight after Johnson tacitly endorsed Lawson.
Villegas, once Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s floor leader, is one of Johnson’s most outspoken moderate critics.
In late 2024, Villegas and Johnson squared off in a heated conversation on the council floor amid controversy over the mayor’s attempts to push out former Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, and the Northwest Side moderate has also hit the mayor on other aspects of Johnson’s progressive agenda.
Villegas often angled himself as a leading voice in the opposition to Johnson’s 2026 budget plan and head tax. But the coalition that passed this year’s $16.6 billion alternate budget over the mayor’s approval spanned racial lines and included several South and West siders — as well as Lawson.
It was a sign that the traditionally entrenched racial lines in Chicago politics were realigning, and foreshadowed Wednesday’s unusual display of aldermen making odd bedfellows in search of political opportunity.
Talking to reporters after the meeting Wednesday, Johnson brushed off the notion that he could have played a more forceful role.
“Clearly, I’m not fazed by critics,” Johnson said. “Here’s the difference between me and other mayors: I’m not as sensitive as they were.”
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