Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Comm. Rosa Escareño [left] and Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) during a committee meeting on Thursday

A City Council committee voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to advance a sweeping business deregulation package (O2021-2183) designed to speed the city’s pandemic recovery, setting up a major policy win for Mayor Lori Lightfoot over the objections of aldermen who fear one provision will usurp their ward-level authority.

Aldermen on the council’s Committee on License and Consumer Protection voted 15-3 to advance the 93-page “Chi Biz Strong” business relief package, teeing it up for final approval by the City Council next Wednesday. The ordinance’s 10 sections and dozens of subsections unspool or re-tool city rules around a wide range of businesses, including restaurants, taxis, and hotels. Also attached is a resolution supporting a future $10 million direct aid initiative and debt relief program for businesses.

Plan Commissioners were split on a proposal to add a 34-unit residential building to an industrial area near Lincoln Yards.

Members of the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday gave unanimous approval to two proposals from LG Development expected to bring more than 1,000 new residential units to Fulton Market. But commissioners were split on a proposal for a new 34-unit residential building proposed across the street from the Lincoln Yards mega-development. 

Aldermen are scheduled to vote on a pair of police oversight ordinances Friday. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

After months of delay, aldermen are set to vote Friday to pick a plan for civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department, potentially teeing up a full City Council vote on the issue next week. 

Aldermen during an April 2021 City Council meeting. [Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times/pool]

This article was published in collaboration with Block Club Chicago.

CHICAGO — Chicago no longer has aldermen — at least according to a bill signed by Gov. JB Pritzker Thursday.

The bill, which was primarily introduced to expand voting options and move the state’s 2022 primary from March 15 to June 28, also called for the elimination of the term used to describe Chicago City Council members for 184 years. Now, the gender neutral “alderperson” will be used to describe city elected officials in state legislative materials.

Aldermen grilled Celia Meza on Wednesday before approving her appointment as Corporation Counsel.

Wednesday’s meeting of the City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations opened the door for aldermen to question a wide range of topics, including why aldermen don’t have their own separate legal counsel, the status of replacing lead service lines and why the city should contract out work on its own five-year capital plan. 

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) challenged the city’s timeline for upgrading its technology during a committee hearing on Wednesday.

Chicago leaders should spend at least $350 million during the next decade to update the city’s outdated apps, retrain and reshuffle its information technology staff and make a host of other tech improvements, a consultant told aldermen Wednesday after conducting a months-long study. The alternative would mean wasting increasing amounts of taxpayer money.

A-frame signs like this one in Andersonville would be formally legalized under a sweeping business relief ordinance set for consideration Thursday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is hauling her 95-page hodgepodge of business deregulation proposals to a City Council committee on Thursday in a bet that the sweeping business relief package can overcome grumblings from some aldermen over its size and reach.

Lightfoot is scheduled to introduce an updated version of her “Chi Biz Strong” ordinance (O2021-2183) directly to the City Council Committee on License and Consumer Protection during its 10 a.m. meeting on Thursday. The direct introduction will allow the mayor to bypass Ald. Raymond Lopez’s (15) move to sidetrack the ordinance to the council’s Committee on Committees and Rules last month.

A proposed development would add 665 residential units in two buildings on either side of Lake Street to the Near West Side. [Chicago Department of Planning and Development]

Members of the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday are set to consider proposals that would together add more than 1,000 new residential units to the Near West Side, among other plans. 

The Plan Commission is scheduled during its 10 a.m. meeting to weigh approval of a 33-story building with 486 residential units proposed for the south side of 1150 W. Lake St. and a 20-story, 179-unit residential building proposed on the north side of the street (O2021-1495).