Want to build in Chicago? Your design better fly with these folks first. [Crain's]
Meetings & Agendas- Chicago
- Springfield
Erin Hegarty has covered City Hall for The Daily Line since September 2020. She previously covered the City of Naperville for the Naperville Sun/Chicago Tribune for four years, and prior to that covered the northwest suburbs for the Daily Herald. Erin enjoys biking around the city and eating her way through different neighborhoods.
Contact Erin at [email protected]
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Covering Chicago City Hall for @thedailylinechi. Send tips to [email protected] More coffee, always.Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) used a committee meeting Thursday to ask whether Chicago Board of Ethics members think the city should be involved in the Chicago Park District’s probe into sexual abuse among its lifeguards. Aldermen advanced an update to the city’s excavation rules. A group of aldermen sent a letter to city health officials asking them to impose a requirement for proof of vaccination in indoor spaces. And the City Council Committee on Contract Oversight and Equity is set to advance an extension of the city’s minority hiring program, weeks before the program is set to expire.
The West Loop building boom is not slowing down.
DAC Developments received approval from the city’s Plan Commission Thursday for a 213-foot, 19-story building at 1227 W. Washington Blvd.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a vaccine mandate for city workers, but some of the city's largest labor unions are resisting. And the city's mental health emergency response system is set to launch Monday.
A series of key legal restrictions designed to control the proliferation of new pot dispensaries in Chicago would be lifted under a new ordinance proposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday, one of dozens of new ordinances and resolutions tossed into consideration in advance of the City Council’s August recess.
A five-year back-and-forth over how to reactivate one of Chicago’s most prized slices of publicly-owned property is on track to culminate on Tuesday, as City Council committees consider zoning approval and a redevelopment agreement for the sprawling “Bronzeville Lakefront” mega-development on the former site of Michael Reese Hospital.
Aldermen are scheduled Tuesday to advance a pair of tax incentives and probe World Business Chicago leaders on how they’re marketing the city. Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Monday the recipients of Neighborhood Opportunity Fund grants. And the Chicago Board of Ethics issued a new round of advisory opinions.
Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson will step down from his post this fall after 12 eventful years overseeing investigations of waste, fraud and abuse in city government, he informed Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a letter Thursday evening.
Aldermen will gather virtually for a special City Council meeting Friday to probe Chicago Police Department leaders on their summer anti-violence strategy. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle made a rare joint appearance to unveil a new monument to journalist Ida B. Wells. And a trio of freshman alderman emphasized their support for efforts to create a citywide network of bike lanes.
Reinstated renter protections, a permanent citywide e-scooter program and two proposals meant to combat systemic racism in home lending are among the dozens of new measures set for introduction at Friday’s City Council meeting. The raft of new legislation was set to be rolled out on Wednesday, until the meeting abruptly adjourned following a dispute over the appointment of Corporation Counsel Celia Meza.
Aldermen advanced a measure to expedite fire code enforcement at the city’s airports. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she supports making Juneteenth an official city holiday, and she once again called on state lawmakers to pause their push to create an elected Chicago school board. And the Cook County Democratic Party’s semi-annual slating session, usually a summer affair, will take place in August this year.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is set to unveil her 2022 spending plan Monday, about one month earlier than the city’s typical budget schedule, amid calls for the city to pump directly into communities nearly $1.9 billion in federal pandemic-related grant money.
Aldermen on Friday re-referred three proposals related to public safety that had been temporarily banished to the council’s Committee on Committees and Rules. And the City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight advanced the nominations of two members of a search committee tasked with finding the city’s next inspector general.
A 282-unit Near West Side residential building approved by the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday would be the first major development required to meet the demands of the city’s new Affordable Requirements Ordinance, officials said.
Two Chicago hospitals are seeking approval from the city to add new medical buildings to their campuses.
The City Council voted on Tuesday to approve a collective bargaining agreement with the Chicago Police Department’s rank-and-file employees, ending the union’s four-year absence of a contract.
Greater Englewood is one of several communities throughout Chicago carved up into numerous wards and represented by multiple aldermen. While some of those aldermen agree with a prominent community group that wants ward boundaries to be redrawn so they more closely mirror neighborhood lines, others argue it is beneficial to Greater Englewood to be represented by the six aldermen who currently each claim a piece of the neighborhood.
The one-month extension of a rental agreement between the city and a downtown hotel to use 175 rooms as shelter for single men experiencing homelessness cleared a committee hurdle Thursday.
Aldermen are set on Thursday to extend a contract with a downtown hotel that has served as a quarantine location for city and nursing home workers, and to approve the allocation of at least $900,00 in new grant money.
Aldermen used a City Council committee meeting on Tuesday to air frustrations with the Chicago Housing Authority to board members before approving their reappointments unanimously.
Aldermen on Tuesday are set to consider the sale of multiple city-owned properties on the city’s South and West sides for various developments, including a plan to bring 100 affordable single-family homes to North Lawndale.
Aldermen were divided on Thursday over a new concession agreement set to bring vending machines and an automated no-touch shop to O’Hare Airport, as members of the Latino Caucus said the city didn’t do enough to attract Hispanic firms to get involved.
Aldermen used a Thursday City Council committee meeting to grill newly nominated commissioners for the Chicago Park District Board on the ongoing investigation into sexual abuse by lifeguards and other recent issues facing the park district.
City officials on Wednesday began briefing aldermen and residents on a “co-responder” pilot program launched Monday that sends different combinations of mental health professionals, paramedics, police officers and recovery specialists in response to residents experiencing mental health crises.
A review of Chicago’s 311 service request system would not only make the tool more useful and accurate for residents but could also help city departments make their case for a bigger slice of the city’s budget, according to an alderman.
Upgrades made two years ago to the city’s 311 system could soon be reviewed in an attempt to make the service request system more accurate and helpful for residents and city officials.
The lead sponsor of an ordinance that would make permanent a ban on city water shutoffs and expand the city’s affordable billing program says he hopes his proposal, which aldermen were supportive of on Friday, is passed by the end of the year.
With little discussion and ample support from the local alderman and city officials, the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday gave an initial green light to Onni Group’s proposal to transform a portion of Goose Island into a five-tower mixed-use development, complete with public open space and a pedestrian bridge over the Chicago River.
A massive mixed-use development that would bring Goose Island its first residential units in decades and a 300-key hotel is expected to get an initial OK from the city during Thursday’s Plan Commission meeting.
The ShotSpotter technology the city of Chicago uses to detect where guns are fired is not “effective” in “developing evidence of gun-related crime,” a report published Tuesday by the Office of Inspector General found.
The Kroll Bond Rating Agency on Tuesday upgraded Chicago’s general obligation debt from “negative” to “stable,” but analysts remained wary about effects of the COVID-19 Delta variant and the city’s reliance on “non-recurring revenue.”
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Covering Chicago City Hall for @thedailylinechi. Send tips to [email protected] More coffee, always.
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