Concept art for the Galleria 89 mixed-use development [548 Enterprise website]

The City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards will meet Tuesday to consider zone change applications that would facilitate the expansion of Epic Academy in South Chicago, a new mixed-use residential community and improvements to the Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School. 

The committee will also consider landmark status for a particularly unique residence in Old Town. The committee will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday and will be held virtually.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot gave her farewell address Monday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot gave her farewell address Monday touting her four years as mayor as one marked not only by challenges like the pandemic, civil unrest and an inherited budget deficit but one filled with hope and equity.

The City Council committee structure and chair assignments will look different next term. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

A new plan detailing chairmanships for City Council committees leaves some veteran aldermen without committee chair roles and cuts the number of committees down from an already approved 28 to 20. 

Brian McDermott, chief of patrol for CPD, speaks during a news conference Friday. [CPD livestream] 

The city of Chicago’s plan to deter violence this summer and prevent a repeat of the chaos experienced in the Loop several weekends ago while the city experienced unseasonably warm weather includes a heavier police presence in Millennium Park, at the lakefront beaches and on CTA trains and buses.  

Bag checks are also expected to be performed at the beaches and Millennium Park, and police plan to have an increased number of so-called “prisoner vans” in use.  

Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson promised his administration will include local communities when making policy decisions related to caring for migrant arrivals at the same time as the mayor’s office has come under criticism in the South Shore community for plans to open a respite shelter there. Meanwhile, Mayor Lori Lightfoot traveled to Brighton Park Friday to attend the opening of the Chicago Park District’s new headquarters.

From left, Ald. Michelle Harris (8) and Ald. Greg Mitchell (7) observe a community meeting about the plan to temporarily house migrants at the former South Shore High School building. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office and Ald. Michelle Harris (8) hosted a community meeting Thursday evening in front of an unruly, often disruptive crowd that voiced opposition to the city’s plan to shelter at least 250 migrants, including asylum seekers, at the former South Shore High School building on Constance Avenue in the 8th Ward. 

Harris agreed with the crowd of attendees, saying she was opposed to the housing of migrants at the school on the grounds that the city and country’s “humanitarian crisis” was not the 8th Ward’s crisis.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot does not plan to fill the 34th Ward City Council seat vacated by former Ald. Carrie Austin more than 60 days ago. The alderman-elect of the 44th Ward has published results of a community survey his office administered before he is set to be sworn into office May 15. 

Fred Waller and Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson during a news conference Wednesday. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line] 

Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson has selected Fred Waller, a former member of Chicago Police Department leadership, to serve as interim superintendent of the Chicago Police Department beginning May 15 until a civilian-led committee makes their own recommendation on who should lead the police department. 

A portion of the North Branch Trail is shown in 2020. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

The Board of Commissioners for the Forest Preserves of Cook County recently accepted the final report from a task force charged with studying and recommending potential changes to geographic names on forest preserve land. 

The task force identified more than a dozen priority names that could be first on the list for possible change and created a loose outline for reviewing and determining whether a name would be subject to change. But it concluded further work was necessary to finalize a rubric to evaluate names and recommended additional public and stakeholder input.

A working group of aldermen met Tuesday to make City Council committee assignments. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

After meeting for about six hours at City Hall on Tuesday, aldermen did not come to an agreement on City Council committee assignments and chairmanships that would be in place for the next four years.

The mayor announced a historically large slate of city grant awardees Tuesday and highlighted the latest progress for a fund meant to fill in the gaps for people who didn’t qualify for federal pandemic stimulus programs.

The curb-protected bike lane on Logan Boulevard. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line] 

Chicago’s Department of Transportation (CDOT) started off the spring upgrading several sections of bike lanes throughout the city to add concrete curb protections after such upgrades faced delays last year. 

City planner Heidi Sperry speaks during an April 27, 2023 webinar to kick off the process to update the 2003 Central Area Plan over a slideshow depicting the boundaries of the affected areas downtown. [Planning and Development Department webinar]

The city has kicked off the public input process for updating the decades-old guiding document for the downtown area. The Department of Planning and Development (DPD) hosted a webinar last Thursday before opening up a survey for Chicagoans to share their priorities for the next 20 years of downtown growth and development. 

Later this month, Chicagoans are invited to an open house on the update to the Central Area Plan. Registration for the event is now open.

Brandie Knazze speaks during a committee hearing Friday. [City of Chicago livestream]

Aldermen this month will be asked to approve a mid-year budget amendment to close a shortfall in the projected $124 million it will cost to support asylum seekers arriving in Chicago. 

The city is aiming to keep pace with its goals to expand its tree canopy as a new season of tree planting gets underway, and the planning department is asking the public and stakeholders for input as the process begins for an update to a downtown plan.