A local planning think tank is blaming Chicago’s aldermanic tradition of hyperlocal control of what gets built and where for “standing in the way” of making housing more affordable, predictable and fair, ensuring “political infighting rather than common-sense policymaking.”
But getting members of the City Council to give up their “prerogative” — an unofficial system in which aldermen can give a thumbs up or down to projects within their wards and colleagues largely defer to their decisions by default — will be tough, according to the comprehensive report on proposed improvements to Chicago’s outdated zoning code by the Metropolitan Planning Council.
Past efforts failed and continue to fuel pitched battles in the City Council. Several aldermen, for example, opted out of a citywide program to allow construction of coach houses or “granny flats” formally known as accessory dwelling units, arguing their constituents didn’t want any more density in their neighborhoods. Statewide, some municipalities have pushed back against Gov. JB Pritzker’s housing plan, describing it as an unwanted intrusion into local decision-making.
Besides prerogative, the team that developed the 80-page report over the past three years suggested more than a dozen changes to the city’s zoning code as difficult but necessary steps to address the city’s looming affordable housing inflection point. The Chicago metro area is short some 230,000 affordable rental homes for very low-income households, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has tried to address some development bottlenecks through his “Cut the Tape” initiative, but MPC researchers suggest the city needs a bigger overhaul before its housing problems reach the same crisis as places like San Francisco, Seattle and New York City.
Changes to Chicago’s arcane and complex zoning code — which often necessitate the help of expensive zoning attorneys or permit expediters to navigate — would be a significant improvement and likely unlock much-needed housing and business development, the group recommends. The think tank separately created a 50-page ‘zine to walk average people through the process.
“There are at least 67 zoning districts with at least 28 geographic overlays layered on top of these districts,” their research found. “At least 180 specific land use types are listed in the zoning code and at least five government decision-making bodies make official decisions about zoning.”
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“My kind of unofficial working title is: ‘This isn’t working,’” said Dan Lurie, the council’s president and CEO. Lurie was former policy chief for Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who made tackling prerogative and spurring housing and other business projects on the South and West sides a priority and was sometimes stymied by pushback from aldermen.
During meetings and community briefings, MPC officials said investors, developers and housing providers all expressed how difficult and unpredictable it is to build in Illinois.
Among the most significant changes the report recommends are allowing four-flats as a default on residential lots instead of the current system, where most of the city only allows single-family homes. The report also calls for letting apartment buildings stand up to six stories by-right near rail stations and the most frequent and highest-volume bus lanes.
Emily Bloom-Carlin, MPC’s Director of Housing and Community Development, said the political will to make large-scale changes is shifting thanks to the national affordability crisis and the success of other programs that have chipped away at the city’s housing shortage.
She pointed to Lightfoot’s Connected Communities ordinance, which let developers get a simple up-or-down vote from the entire City Council when proposing large amounts of affordable housing in high-cost, transit-rich areas.
“There is a wide recognition among some of the newer alders and some of the folks who were really engaged in this process that they actually don’t want to be approving each individual sign permit… zoning request or special use request,” Bloom-Carlin said. “They would rather focus on the large and more meaningful elements of their work.”
Small business owners are being held up by other wonky processes at the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals, which decides whether beauty and nail salons, barber shops, tattoo parlors and outdoor patios can be built. MPC recommends those proposals, which typically clear the board easily, should be allowed by-right, instead of having to jump through the ZBA hoop.
As for whether the report helps prompt change or becomes yet another weighty academic doorstop, that remains to be seen at City Hall, where entrenched political power often combines with bureaucratic inertia to stifle innovation.
Lurie said he hopes the report provides a foundation for candidates up and down next spring’s municipal ballot to stake claims. “The solution is not going to be a mayor coming in and going ‘Alright, let’s do it.’ It’s going to require council, it’s going to require a much bigger kind of shift in our politics to make this viable.”