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enters ordinance would create the rental registry the city needs build would legalize pocket neighborhoods across illinois my testimony to the illinois house s executive community in favor of the build plan chicago is about to spend millions on a new parking garage and nothing on transit at the 78 july 10 2026 steven vance 0 comments this week i asked my alderperson to defer the finance committee s vote on a massive funding package that would have the city own a parking garage while at the same time making zero investments in transit dear alderperson conway i think it s prudent and appropriate if you would as finance committee vice chair to defer voting on the 425 million tif package for the 78 until several questions and planning issues are resolved i think you re the ideal alderperson to insist that a commitment this large has greater scrutiny before it moves and i m asking you to defer the vote and build consensus on the committee and gain more support from chicagoans to hold it until there s more analysis and understanding of the pros and cons this public commitment deserves more vetting and public engagement than has happened so far and the current timeline will permit three concerns stand out first a large share of this package would build an approximately 1 200 space below grade garage that the city would own and operate and i don t believe public tif dollars should be underwriting a permanent and expensive parking structure especially given the city s track record as a steward of its own parking in 2006 chicago leased the garages under grant and millennium parks to investors for 563 million over 99 years a deal that later cost taxpayers roughly 62 million in 2015 1 for allowing competing parking and eventually collapsed into default for the investors operating parking garages is a risky investment before the committee votes i d want to understand why a new city owned garage is a wise use of this money when it would actually begin generating revenue and how any proceeds would be directed toward community needs rather than servicing the project or paying back debt used to construct it second this package includes no transit investment the original vision for the 78 was anchored by a new cta red line station inside the site at roughly 15th and clark which would ensure that the future residents tenants and visitors would not have to rely on cars to get around and add to the local traffic public funding to build a new l station approved by city council in april 2019 would do far more for the city s climate and equity goals than attracting more driving to the site why is the city planning to fund a single purpose garage while the transit that was supposed to anchor the project is left out third the 78 has a tenuous plan for its second phase once the soccer stadium is built the project has long promised thousands of homes in future phases but assurances that residential will be built and how and when essential infrastructure will be built and funded are inadequate the september 2025 presentation 2 to chicago plan commission showed the residential area being used as surface car parking for an indefinite period of time before the city puts up roughly 425 million there should be a defined phase two plan that includes a substantial residential component the transit adjacent site is the ideal location for new housing it would help ease the region s shortage and give people the option to live near jobs and transit i m asking for your help to get better answers a better plan and additional public input by deferring the vote in finance and thank you for the scrutiny you ve already brought to the city s finances respectfully steven vance chicago sun times ︎ chicago plan commission ︎ share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on bluesky opens in new window bluesky share on threads opens in new window threads share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on reddit opens in new window reddit more print opens in new window print share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest built in 1912 banned in 1957 the courtyard homes at the damen station june 11 2026 steven vance 0 comments finding an affordable home near the brown line in ravenswood is hard not having enough homes to rent or buy creates cutthroat competition and drives up prices wait lists for apartments offers over asking for anyone trying to buy the retail and day care workers who serve this neighborhood face the same shortage as everyone else too few homes that meet their needs and budgets too close to where they need to be half a block from the damen station there s a building that shows how local zoning codes can inhibit and prohibit multifamily housing from being built and how the build plan was designed to start allowing lower cost housing types again read my previous article about courtyard buildings in chicago the building the courtyard building at 4615 33 n damen ave has 45 homes studios through three bedrooms wrapped around a landscaped courtyard a few hundred feet from rapid transit that connects to jobs across the city it went up around 1912 the cook county assessors office s records also say 1914 more than a decade before chicago adopted its first zoning ordinance there was no restriction on how many homes could fit on the lot no required parking no formula setting a minimum amount of land per apartment required before a permit could be obtained this attached courtyard building is also known in land use and architecture as a point access block because there is a single block of housing with multiple points of access where each point has a level of two to four apartments sharing a single stair core you could not build this kind of housing on this block today the law has not allowed it since 1957 sanborn map showing the brown line station and the courtyard building evolution of chicago s housing suppression rules each time chicago has revised its zoning rules the housing capacity of this lot has shrunk 1912 45 homes built chicago had no zoning ordinance no parking requirement no cap on homes per lot no minimum lot area formula 1957 the city s first major zoning rewrite added off street parking requirements and a minimum lot area formula maximum allowed on this lot roughly 33 homes the parking requirement was just as prohibitive nowhere on this lot to add it without tearing out apartments to pour concrete 2026 the current code is stricter still maximum allowed 30 homes three fewer than the 1957 ban permitted and 15 fewer than actually exist you can see it in the property report on chicago cityscape a building fully occupied for over a century serving its neighborhood standing half again as dense as current rules in the b3 2 zoning district would allow on its own footprint this is what a ban on affordable home choices looks like in practice the courtyard building style didn t fall out of fashion people still choose to live in them the bans on building new ones were written in 1957 and have only tightened since what the build plan would do the build plan is relevant to this specific address the plan s provisions don t simply gesture at more homes they name the specific home types that municipalities would be required to allow and courtyard apartments are on the list the kind of homes here in the kind of community that needs more home choices near transit is the kind of flexibility for responding to housing needs that the bill specifically restores pair that with the build plan s investment to actually finance construction and you have a path to more homes near the jobs the schools and the transit that the people our communities rely on need to reach illinois already knows how to build this housing it s standing half a block from the brown line a century old and against the rules pass the build plan share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on bluesky opens in new window bluesky share on threads opens in new window threads share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on reddit opens in new window reddit more print opens in new window print share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest chicago s protecting renters ordinance would create the rental registry the city needs june 5 2026 steven vance 0 comments update july 15 2026 mayor johnson introduced the protecting renters ordinance as number o2026 0026554 on june 29 2026 today city that works wrote about the pros and cons and potential positive and negative impacts of the proposed legislation i ve written twice about why chicago should have a rental registry first proposing a kludge using existing county databases in 2023 then laying out the full rationale in 2024 now mayor brandon johnson has proposed a rental registry as part of the protecting renters ordinance or pro pro is a comprehensive modernization of the residential landlord and tenant ordinance rlto that law was first enacted during the harold washington administration and has hardly been updated since chicago s rental market in 2026 looks nothing like it did in 1986 according to a fact sheet provided by the mayor s office 622 000 families rent in chicago today about 54 percent of all households nearly half of them 48 percent are cost burdened meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing rents have risen 10 percent year over year and 12 percent of chicago s 2 to 6 unit buildings the city s classic two flats and three flats are now owned by llcs a share that has grown as corporate investors have entered the market housing costs have now surpassed crime as the top concern among chicago voters with 41 percent naming affordability as their primary issue in a march 2026 illinois realtors poll compared to 23 percent for crime the city has no rental registry and no just cause eviction protection pro proposes to change both and more five components rental registry requires annual registration of all non owner occupied rental units creating a citywide data infrastructure and connecting llc entities to the real people behind them bureau of rental housing services brh the city s first dedicated office for rlto code enforcement right now tenants who want to enforce their rights have to hire their own attorney the brh would handle complaint processing investigation and enforcement coordination it would also provide compliance support for small landlords it would be funded by rental registry fees not the general fund rlto modernization and tenant rights updates the underlying law and cleans up its language bans junk fees caps application fees at 20 unless a credit or background check costs more addresses utility pass throughs known as ratio utility billing systems rubs landlords could only charge tenants the exact utility cost reforms security deposits and administrative fees consolidates existing tenant rights into a tenant bill of rights none of these rights would be new but the consolidation would make them easier to understand and enforce maintenance and upkeep costs could not be passed on to tenants as fees eviction counsel program codifies the existing right to counsel pilot program giving it permanent legal authority the program is currently run by the law center for better housing at an annual cost of about 4 million it returns an estimated 2 75 to 3 35 in fiscal benefits for every 1 invested about 13 6 million in cumulative benefits since 2022 this piece would not be funded by the rental registry and would need a budget appropriation starting in 2028 just cause for eviction requires landlords to provide a valid reason for eviction or non renewal with relocation assistance required when tenants are displaced without cause the city estimates this would protect about 10 000 families per year the rental registry in depth the rental registry is the component that makes many of pro s other components workable right now chicago has no comprehensive record of its more than 500 000 rental units who owns them or how many there are in a given building as i noted in my 2024 post the city s complaint based inspection system misses dangerous situations in part because tenants fear retaliation a registry shifts the city from being almost always reactive to possible being more proactive the registry would require landlords to renew annually and pay a fee ranging from 20 to 60 per unit scaled to building size according to the real deal the city estimates this would generate about 20 million annually enough to fund the bureau of rental housing services and its enforcement work without drawing on the general fund owner occupied 2 to 6 unit buildings cha housing and nonprofit affordable housing would be exempt from fees but not from the registration requirement itself the distinction matters the city still wants to know those units exist even if it isn t charging those owners the registry would give the city a tool it currently lacks for understanding patterns tracking building violations over time identifying landlords with repeat problems and spotting speculation in gentrifying neighborhoods where investors are acquiring properties without maintaining them the sun times reported that the city specifically cited this use case the registry as a way to start tracking patterns and understanding trends chicago would not be the first illinois city to do this rockford urbana champaign and evanston all have rental registries new york city philadelphia los angeles washington dc and detroit are the national comparables the city cited new york has three registries for rent stabilized units short term rentals and a general one chicago s would be modeled on that general type focused on data collection and transparency rather than rent regulation the ordinance as proposed is focused on registration and enforcement but i see opportunities to expand what the registry tracks could it record evictions as they happen building a running citywide record rather than relying on court data retrieved years after the event courts will provide eviction data but only historically a live registry linked to eviction filings would be far more useful for spotting patterns in real time could it also serve as a public facing database of available apartments including units created through the city s affordable requirements ordinance aro units are notoriously difficult for renters to find the city publishes an aro buildings database but people who qualify for an aro apartment must contact each building manager individually to ascertain availability a registry designed with these uses in mind from the start could solve so many longstanding issues with finding housing where things stand pro is still a work in progress and the ordinance text hasn t been finalized the city has been briefing advocacy organizations and apartment industry groups to gather feedback and is hoping to introduce the ordinance in late june i ll write ...