Industrial zoning ordinance up approval Wednesday; Hadden to force vote on India resolution  

Aldermen are set to approve a proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot to tack on more regulations on industrial development after months of deadlock and revisions to the ordinance to aimed at softening the measure’s impact on developers.  

The ordinance (O2020-4590) will be considered by aldermen during the Wednesday City Council meeting set to begin at 10 a.m., along with an ordinance (O2021-746) that would tack on a surcharge to residential demolitions in Pilsen and near the 606 trail. Another measure (O2021-446) up for consideration would restart the clock on city-backed affordable housing covenants each time a home changes hands.  

Ald. Sophia King (4) and Michele Smith (43) got into a heated exchange during a February zoning committee meeting over King’s proposal to tighten regulations on “house museums.”

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Ald. Sophia King (4) withdrew her proposal on Tuesday to tighten restrictions around residential museums and cultural sites, blasting Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other high-profile critics whom she said conspired to sink the citywide measure.

The latest draft of King’s ordinance (O2020-6185) would ban “cultural exhibit” uses in residential single-family zoning districts, and it would require new “house museum” applicants in other residential zones to get a special permit from the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot will oversee the City Council meeting Wednesday.

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Aldermen are set to approve a proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot to tack on more regulations on industrial development after months of deadlock and revisions to the ordinance to aimed at softening the measure’s impact on developers.

The ordinance (O2020-4590) will be considered by aldermen during the Wednesday City Council meeting set to begin at 10 a.m., along with an ordinance (O2021-746) that would tack on a surcharge to residential demolitions in Pilsen and near the 606 trail. Another measure (O2021-446) up for consideration would restart the clock on city-backed affordable housing covenants each time a home changes hands.

A new proposed ordinance would fulfil Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaign promise to revamp the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance

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A years-in-the-making plan by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to revamp one of the city’s signature affordable housing policies would crank up requirements for many developers while offering them more ways to satisfy city rules. 

The top-to-bottom rewrite of the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance, set for introduction by Lightfoot during Wednesday’s City Council meeting, would fulfil one of Lightfoot’s key campaign promises. The ordinance has been a source of debate since its 2007 inception between housing activists, who say the policy has not done enough to spur new affordable homes in wealthy neighborhoods, and many developers, who have decried the rules as overly restrictive. 

News in brief: New mass vaccination site launched in Forest Park; land bank director resigns to “pursue other opportunities” 

A controversial proposal by Ald. Sophia King (4) to tighten regulations around house-based museums and cultural sites is set to meet its fate on Tuesday as King steps up her defense against critics — who on Monday included Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

The ordinance (O2020-6185), as introduced by King last December, would have banned property owners from opening “libraries or cultural exhibits” in most residential zoning districts. She softened her proposal ahead of last month’s meeting of the council’s Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards by limiting the ban to single-family residential districts, while applicants would need permission from the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals to open the so-called “home museums” in multi-unit zoning districts.

Aldermen on the City Council Committee on Finance approved $17.6 million in tax-increment financing payments (TIF) for Chicago parks on Monday, including $10 million for Riis Park at 6100 W. Fullerton Ave. in the 30th Ward.

Most of the Riis Park funding will go toward “major design and reconstruction” for the park’s fieldhouse (O2021-766), which will be adjacent to Chicago Public Schools’ new Belmont Cragin Elementary school. Construction is set to get underway on the school later this year in advance of opening in fall 2022.

News in brief: New mass vaccination site launched in Forest Park; land bank director resigns to “pursue other opportunities” 

Aldermen approved a demolition surcharge for gentrifying areas on Monday, teeing it up for a full City Council vote later this week. Aldermen also approved a list of banks and lending institutions where the city and Chicago Public Schools will place their savings this year. 

The demolition surcharge ordinance (O2021-746), which passed with 20-11 vote during Monday’s City Council Committee on Finance meeting, would tack on a $15,000 fee to demolition applications for any single-family home, townhome and two-flat in the designated residential zones in Pilsen and near the 606 Bloomingdale Trail. Additionally, developers would be charged $5,000 for each unit demolished that was part of a multifamily apartment building. 

Aldermen are scheduled on Monday to consider an anti-gentrification measure, revisit where the city invests its savings and approve more than a dozen separate tax-increment financing disbursements during a marathon meeting of the City Council Committee on Finance.

The agenda includes an ordinance (O2021-746) introduced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot last month that would charge a fee on anyone applying to demolish a residential building in Pilsen or near the 606 Bloomingdale Trail. The measure is cosponsored by Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) and Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), who have both long advocated for demolition fees as a tool to slow displacement in their gentrifying wards.

Advocates and aldermanic sponsors of a new compromise ordinance to enact civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department are mum on the details of the proposal they’re calling the Empowering Communities for Public Safety Ordinance.

The coalitions behind the Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) held a news conference on Friday announcing they had reached an agreement and demanding that Mayor Lori Lightfoot “stop getting in the way of progress.”

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle during a monthly Board of Commissioners meeting on Thursday

It will likely be another several months before Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is ready to relinquish pandemic-related emergency powers, she and other county leaders said Thursday.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners voted 15-2 on Thursday to extend (21-2068) through April 30 the county’s COVID-19 disaster proclamation by an additional month, empowering Preckwinkle to issue executive orders and procure contracts without board approval. It was the sixth time the board has approved an extension to the disaster declaration, which will now be extended into a 13^th month.

Approval of 12-story mixed-income development marks ‘final phase’ of Horner Homes vision, Commissioner says 

Members of the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday approved proposals for a 12-story mixed-income development and Chicago’s first Epsorts stadium in Bronzeville.  

Commissioners gave unanimous approval to all four proposals on their agenda Thursday, including what multiple commissioners referred to as a “beautiful” office and retail building proposed for the West Loop and a 375-unit building planned at 160 N. Elizabeth St. 

News in brief: snow shoveling restriction advances; Aldermen to consider increased penalties, fines for drag racing, drifting 

Ald. Jason Ervin asked Department of Aviation Comm. Jamie Rhee questions during Wednesday’s budget committee meeting.

Aldermen opened the floodgates on Wednesday for the city to spend more than $100 million in federal pandemic-related grants to bolster O’Hare and Midway airports and feed a slew of other city programs related to health, transportation and small businesses.

The ordinance (SO2021-747) appropriating the federal COVID-19 grant funding was approved unanimously during the City Council’s Committee of Budget and Government Operations meeting on Wednesday. The latest draft of the ordinance approved by aldermen was not posted on the city clerk’s website until Wednesday afternoon after the meeting had adjourned.