More than 300 people packed a conference room at Malcolm X College last night to listen and testify at the first of a handful of police accountability town hall meetings hosted by City Council's Progressive Caucus. The turnout was much larger than expected–enough that Malcolm X officials had to disassemble a wall in the conference room to double the size of the meeting space.

  The Chicago Plan Commission approved a zoning change to facilitate the construction of McDonald’s new headquarters in the Fulton Market District, land-use plans for a second TIF district dedicated to the massive Lathrop Homes development, a plan to turn the historic Old Main Building on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus into apartments, and a new residential housing complex for Wicker Park, along with several other large-scale residential developments and one hotel at its monthly meeting yesterday.

McDonald’s Headquarters for Fulton Market District (27th Ward)

Sterling Bay, the developer behind McDonald’s new downtown office, plans to build a nine-story office building with ground floor retail at the Harpo Studios site, the former home of the Oprah Winfrey Show. The site at 110 N. Carpenter contains a surface parking lot and the adjacent, vacant production studio building.

McDonald’s anticipates that a significant number of the 2,000 employees who currently work out of the Oak Brook office will be transferred to the new Chicago location. A minimum of 300 parking spaces will be provided, along with shuttle buses that will drive to downtown METRA stations.

Six months after an attempt by freshman Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) failed in dramatic fashion in the Budget Committee, aldermen are trying again to help CPS plug its deficit by using TIF revenue.

In February, despite objections over procedure from Ald. Rick Munoz (22), Budget Chair Carrie Austin re-referred a resolution from Rosa calling for “immediate TIF surplus action to offset drastic cuts at our Chicago Public Schools,” to the Finance Committee, where it hasn’t been heard from since.

The City Council’s Law Department is expected to draft a memorandum to aldermen detailing how council committees should proceed when a vote on a matter ends in a tie.

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) made the request to Jeff Levine, a lead attorney with the city’s Law Department, at yesterday’s early morning Rules Committee meeting after the two butted heads over their own interpretations of the council’s Rules of Procedure.

A proposal to create a Civilian Police Accountability Council to oversee investigations into police misconduct will be introduced by Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) today.

Copy of the Draft Ordinance

The “CPAC” ordinance, as it has been commonly referred to by supporters, would create a board of 22 members elected from each police district across the city. Members would serve four-year terms, with elections held at the same time as those for Chicago Public School’s Local School Councils, which have had low participation rates.

In the long slog ahead of budget season, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle invited the public to sound off on her fiscal year 2017 budget projections, and advocate for programs and funding to be spared from expected cuts. President Preckwinkle, who has warned of tough choices ahead, presided over the evening, joined by Finance Chair John Daley, Comm. Richard Boykin, Comm. Robert Steele, and Budget Director Tanya Anthony.

The meeting lasted just over an hour, and compared to some recent pre-board meeting testimony, was extremely tame. Testimony stayed well within the night’s three minute limit, with many coming to voice strong support for the county’s new transportation plan (reps from Globetrotters Engineering, Milhouse Engineering & Construction, Inc., and Knight E/A), continued funding for anti-violence initiatives and Cook County Health and Hospitals System programs (like Jorge Prieto’s dental clinic); or to simply thank President Preckwinkle for funding certain initiatives (like Community Development Block Grants for Loyola University or grant funding for Build Inc. projects).

An otherwise uneventful Housing and Real Estate Committee was marked with a short note of levity from Housing Chair Joe Moore (49), who jokingly volunteered to relinquish his gavel to make a motion to lease the former Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan’s office to the Chicago Park District for $1. Khan’s unpopular stint as LIG ended in November of 2015, but he’s since started work at Project Six, a “government accountability task force” that has reported ties to the Illinois Policy Institute.

Chicago will collect $461 million in Tax Increment Financing revenue in the 2015 tax year, an increase of nearly $89 million over last year, an examination from Cook County Clerk David Orr found. But Orr, in a familiar refrain, noted transparency is still lacking on how revenues from the city’s 146 TIF districts are spent.

“At what point can a taxpayer easily get to the specifics of how certain projects are chosen?” Orr asked in a statement, calling for “a real debate during the budget approval process” over how funds are allocated. He attributes the bounce in TIF revenue to the city’s property tax hikes and increased assessments.

After some last minute negotiations, the Finance Committee approved a re-work of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed property tax rebate program, including a special “hardship clause” for homeowners with an annual gross income of $50,000 or less.

Attendance: Chairman Ed Burke (14), Joe Moreno (1), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (6), Rod Sawyer (6), Gregory Mitchell (7), Michelle Harris (8), Anthony Beale (9), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), George Cardenas (12), Marty Quinn (13), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Derrick Curtis (18), Matt O’Shea (19), Willie Cochran (20), Rick Munoz (22), Mike Zalewski (23), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Danny Solis (25), Walter Burnett (27), Jason Ervin (28), Ariel Reboyras (30), Scott Waguespack (32), Carlos Ramirez Rosa (35), Emma Mitts (37), Nick Sposato (38), Brendan Reilly (42), Michele Smith (43), Tom Tunney (44), John Arena (45), Harry Osterman (48), Deb Silverstein (50)

No official rules or details as to how the city plans to help homeowners in that income bracket were included in the latest version the committee approved. Instead, at the request of Ald. John Arena (45), a clause was added to the ordinance giving Budget Director Alex Holt the authority to add extra protections for those homeowners. Budget spokesperson Molly Poppe said hardship would be decided case by case, and those who qualify might be eligible to recoup the full amount of their property tax hike.

Today is the monthly City Council meeting. The Rules Committee is expected to convene in the Council Chambers 45 minutes ahead of the full meeting to reconsider a ballot referendum question from Ald. Walter Burnett (27).

The resolution, which asks Chicago voters if the state and federal government should invest more money in city roads and public transit, ended in a rare tie vote (7-to-7) in committee last week.

Items Pending Approval

• A Property Tax Rebate Plan for Homeowners with a gross annual income of $75,000 or less.

• TIF amendments to aid a three-year City-County partnership pilot program aimed at spurring development in the city’s industrial corridors.

• A more robust recycling program from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, designed to bring large residential buildings into compliance with the city’s single-source recycling program.

• $4.72 million in legal settlements against police officers with the Chicago Police Department

• A more robust vacant building registration program, extending the registration requirement to foreclosed commercial and retail property.

• Repealing the $30 exam fee for the police and fire entrance exam to bolster minority recruiting.

• Appointment of Alicia Tate-Nadeau as the Executive Director of the Office Of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC).

• Appointment of Nancy C. Andrade as a member of the Board of Ethics, to replace Julia Nowicki, who resigned.

• Allowing alley access for motor vehicle repair shops with less than seven parking spaces, to make it easier for small businesses to build out a cheaper commercial driveway off the alley.

• A proposal to create a “Shared Street” on a portion of Argyle Street in Edgewater, as part of a new pilot program to make commercial corridors more pedestrian friendly.

• A substitute ordinance changing public way permitting, allowing the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation to issue those permits upon passage by the City Council, rather than only after “passage and publication.”

• Bid incentives for veteran-owned subcontractors or Veteran-owned small local businesses

• An expansion of the city's apprentice program to CPS graduates (the program is currently for graduates of City Colleges)

• A symbolic resolution on the Department of Homeland Security to designate Ecuador for temporary protected status and to provide temporary immigration relief to eligible Ecuadorians living in Chicago following a devastating earthquake there that resulted in 660 deaths and racked up about $3 billion in damages earlier this year.

• A new Animal Care and Control policy calling for humane treatment of urban coyotes.

Members of the Chicago Teachers Union will hold a press conference and rally starting at City Hall 9am Wednesday morning ahead of the last City Council meeting before the summer break. “Rahm wants to escape responsibility for our schools. Now that Springfield secured minimal, stopgap school funding he wants us to breathe a sigh of relief and go home,” a release reads. “But CPS still plans to cut hundreds of millions from schools. We say, Not One More Cut! Rahm talks ‘shared sacrifice,’ but teachers have already sacrificed billions. Rahm’s wealthy friends have sacrificed nothing. CTU has outlined ways the City can tax the rich to pay for great schools. Join us at the City Council meeting to demand it.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel returned to a familiar spot–Freedman Seating in the 37th Ward–to roll out a new initiative with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle that will cut through red tape and fast-track environmental remediation at old industrial sites. The aim is to sweeten the pot for developers and new businesses to move into low-employment neighborhoods that house old industrial sites.

The plan, dubbed the Industrial Growth Zones program, “is designed to address the two primary issues landowners and developers cite as obstacles to industrial site investment: vacant or unused land’s environmental conditions, and often-complex government regulations.” The pilot program will take place in 7 areas over the next three years.

A public hearing on Cook County’s fiscal year 2017 forecast will be held this evening in the Cook County Board Room, beginning at 6 pm. Those who wish to testify can fill out a form here. The preliminary budget forecast can be read here, and more on this and previous budgets can be found here. Board President Toni Preckwinkle has also appeared on Chicago Tonight and Politics Tonight to discuss the forecast.

Lobbying groups won a mid-meeting edit of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s update to the city’s recycling ordinance Monday. Chairman George Cardenas asked the Law Department to change the language on the spot to add a 30 day warning period for big buildings not in compliance. Chicago Association of Realtors lobbyist Brian Bernardoni called the changes “good public policy” that give landlords time to comply before facing steep fines.    

One proposed property tax break for a vacant warehouse located at the southern tip of Bridgeport is the only item on the agenda for the Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development.  

The applicant is Howard Wedren, the founder and principal of Dayton Street Partners, a “a niche commercial real estate investment and development firm focused on the acquisition and development of infill industrial, office and retail properties”, according to the company’s website.