A rendering of the five-story, 42-unit apartment building planned at 3443 N. Ashland Ave. [44th Ward]

A proposal for a new 42-unit apartment building in West Lakeview is the largest development item up for approval during a relatively low-key meeting of the City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards at 10 a.m. Tuesday. 

Aldermen are set on Tuesday to lay the groundwork for electronic voting during City Council meetings. And another council committee is scheduled to consider an ordinance that would give aldermen more notice for special events in their wards. 

A slide from a presentation by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events shows renovation plans for the restaurant in Millennium Park.

After a delayed vote earlier this month, a key City Council committee on Friday sent a proposal to award two new liquor licenses in Millennium Park to the full council for approval this week. 

Community members, leaders and activists lay in the street in Logan Square to call on Mayor Lightfoot to deny the permit to move General Iron to the Southeast Side on the 30th day of the hunger strike on March 4, 2021. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago] 

This article first published in Block Club Chicago.  

The city’s health department Friday rejected the final permit needed for a controversial metal scrapper to open on the Southeast Side, a victory for local activists who spent years organizing to block the industrial facility’s move from the North Side. 

Ald. Matt Martin (47) and Chicago Police Department Deputy Chief Ernest Cato speak during a committee meeting Thursday. 

A controversial proposal by Mayor Lori Lightfoot that would empower city attorneys to sue gang leaders for their assets cleared a key committee hurdle on Thursday, lining it up for final approval for the City Council next week. The measure advanced despite a crush of challenges from aldermen who said expanding asset forfeitures could be costly at best and harmful at worst with scant hard evidence that the policy could make a dent in crime. 

From left: Ald. Leslie Hairston (5), Ald. Jason Ervin (28) and Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38) speaking during a committee meeting on Thursday. 

In a split vote, aldermen gave initial approval to a more than $1.6 million payment to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman who alleged that her constitutional rights were violated when police officers pulled her by her hair from a car and placed a knee on her neck at the Brickyard Mall in May 2020. 

Chicago Department of Planning and Development Comm. Maurice Cox presents an update on the “We Will” planning initiative on Thursday.

The Chicago Plan Commission received an update on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s  “We Will Chicago” citywide planning initiative on Thursday, which marked the last meeting for the commission’s chair and vice chair. 

A City Council committee is scheduled on Friday to consider allowing new liquor licenses in Millennium Park. And the city’s Department of Housing on Thursday released a plan for eliminating barriers to fair housing. 

The next phase of the Roosevelt Square affordable complex is up for tax-increment financing assistance after having been granted zoning approval by the City Council last year. [Chicago Department of Planning and Development] 

Aldermen are scheduled during a packed Committee on Finance meeting Thursday to line up tens of millions of dollars in direct and bonded funding for nearly 500 combined units of new affordable homes across the city, including a more than 300-unit new phase of a Chicago Housing Authority complex planned alongside a rehab of the National Public Housing Museum in the University Village area.  

The finance committee is also set during its 10 a.m. meeting to approve $4.4 million in settlements to end four separate police misconduct lawsuits against the city, including a $1.7 million payment to end a lawsuit by a woman who was dragged by her hair by police at the Brickyard Mall in summer 2020. And the committee is scheduled to green-light nearly $10 million in tax-increment financing for various Chicago Park District projects around the city. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended her proposal to sue gang members during a post-City Council meeting news conference in September. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Aldermen are set on Thursday to revisit Mayor Lori Lightfoot's controversial proposal to sue gang leaders and seize their assets and will take up a pair of proposals to tweak rules for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. 

Members of a City Council committee approved the appointment of a new Chicago Park District commissioner and gave an OK to this year’s special events calendar. The Chicago Plan Commission will hear an update on the city’s “We Will” plan on Thursday. And the council’s budget committee approved a slew of new grants on Wednesday. 

Members of the City Council Latino Caucus walk into Council Chambers for an in-person ward map meeting in January. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line] 

Supporters of the independent commission that drew its own ward map proposal announced on Wednesday its endorsement of the City Council Latino Caucus-backed “Coalition Map.” The joining of forces and creation of a new ballot initiative committee show supporters of the map are “taking the step in moving toward a campaign,” the Latino Caucus chair said on Wednesday. 

Ald. Jason Ervin discusses a plan to buy a shuttered Aldi site in West Garfield Park during a meeting of the City Council housing committee on Tuesday. 

A City Council committee green-lit a plan on Tuesday for the city to swoop in on a closed West Garfield Park grocery store site to alleviate a food desert, but not before aldermen grilled city planning officials over what the deal will mean for Chicago’s land intervention policy moving forward. 

This year’s special events calendar is set to include the Taste of Chicago. [Facebook/Taste of Chicago]

The City Council Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation is set to discuss a special events calendar that includes staple Chicago events like the Air and Water Show and the Taste of Chicago. 

Chicago is still likely on track to lose its mask mandate at the end of February, the city’s top doctor said. A key City Council committee on Tuesday approved a property tax incentive for Siegal Steel in Brighton Park. And the council’s budget committee will approve receipt of an untold number of grant funds on Wednesday.