Mayor commits to 100+ policy changes to speed up building approvals

Mayor Brandon Johnson has plans to fast track development in Chicago, as the city’s real estate market faces a myriad of headwinds.

Johnson committed to a raft of reforms, after a 90-day study identified speed bumps in the city’s building approval process. 

While high interest rates have caused the most pain for potential developments, bureaucratic red tape slowed construction progress even before rates started rising. 

“This strategy will quickly increase residential and commercial projects, stimulating business sectors and addressing the urgent need for housing,” Johnson said. 

Proposed policy changes include eliminating minimum parking requirements for new developments, allowing conversion of ground floor commercial spaces to residential, and possibly combining the Community Development Commission with the Chicago Plan Commission. 

Earlier this week, Johnson announced that the city is committing to funding subsidized office-to-residential projects on La Salle Street. These pro-development moves come at a tense time between Johnson and the real estate industry, after voters defeated Bring Chicago Home, Johnson’s proposed real estate transfer tax hike, on March 19. Real estate trade groups lobbied heavily to defeat the proposal, which would have increased taxes on real estate transactions above $1 million, with proceeds used to combat homelessness.

Despite the political push-and-pull between Johnson’s administration and the industry, the city’s goal is to create and reform policies that “will result in more development in communities all across the city,” Kenya Merritt, Deputy Mayor of Business and Neighborhood Development said. 

The 90-day study results identified 107 potential policy changes that would promote growth and speed construction. Johnson assigned each recommendation a deadline for implementation ranging from six months to “12+ months.” They include:

• Eliminate minimum parking requirements for all new developments
• Create a standardized review process across applications for all project types
• Create training classes on submitting construction permits
• Create “a variety of mechanisms” to financially support businesses that are having trouble accessing capital
• Reduce the time it takes for the city to issue vendor requests for proposals by 50 percent
• Publish a checklist to convey city-owned land that includes information about paperwork needed, title issues and other “easily preventable delays”
• Re-make the business license website to make finding and applying for licenses easier
• Improve the permit inspection request website to streamline processes and reduce unnecessary inspection trips
• Eliminate Zoning Board of Appeals approval for special use permits to open a hair salons, barber shops, body art shops or nail salons
• Allow ground-floor residential uses on commercial corridors with excessive vacancy
• Allow commercial-to-residential conversions of ground floors while exempting those conversions from additional residential parking requirements
• Convene a working group to explore consolidating the Community Development Commission and Chicago Plan Commission into a single body or to have joint meetings to streamline processes