Cutting red tape: Chicago makes progress, but long way to go

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s ‘Cut the Tape’ initiative has made real gains for housing in its second year. Still, the hardest reforms remain undone.

Two years after Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson unveiled 107 recommendations to reduce bureaucratic requirements strangling residential and business development, he can claim notable successes, but housing abundance requires more progress.

Last year the Chicago City Council made it easier to eliminate minimum parking requirements for housing developments near public transit. This is important because parking can add significant costs to a development and reduce the space available for housing on the site.

It’s also now somewhat easier to build accessory dwelling units, small housing typically added to a lot with an existing single-family home. The City Council voted 46-0 last September to expand where people could build housing like “granny flats.” As of April 1 these are allowed by right in all multifamily zoning districts in addition to the pilot areas carved out in a 2020 ordinance. That more than doubles the area where ADUs are allowed.

One concern is that the ordinance requires any contractor building an ADU to be enrolled in a federally recognized apprenticeship program. This requirement, which applies to no other category of housing construction, threatens to make the units too expensive and too hard to build when the goal should be to increase supply at low cost.

Also, it’s ultimately up to aldermen whether most property owners can build ADUs in their wards. Rather than expanding eligibility citywide, as the original proposal sought, each alderperson had to opt in RS-zoned blocks and can impose additional restrictions, such as permit caps to limit the number of units built per year or requiring owner-occupancy.

Despite this drawback, the opt-in process has gained meaningful traction. As of December, 28 of the 50 aldermen have opted in their RS-zoned portions to allow at least some development of ADUs.

While these wins are welcome, there’s a ways to go.

The city’s one-year report on the “Cut the Tape” initiative, released last May, said more than 90% of the original 107 recommendations had been completed or were in progress. But at that point, roughly half of the items marked as “completed” merely created committees, roundtables, checklists or trainings. Another quarter of those considered completed simply put forms online, accepted digital signatures or launched software portals. As of March, the online tracker reports only eight recommendations still on hold or not started.

That doesn’t mean Chicago has cut all unnecessary red tape. The initiative still has not addressed the deeper architecture of what limits development.

Over 40% of Chicago remains zoned for only single-family or two-flat housing. Aldermen should pass zoning law changes in RS districts to allow small multifamily housing by right, without requiring a special aldermanic hearing for each project.

The City Council also could consider automatic permit approval, whereby permits are issued by default if the city misses review deadlines. Also, ensuring that criteria for building projects is objective and measurable would reduce the power of those who might oppose development to intervene — especially aldermen.

The Johnson administration has demonstrated it can deliver modest housing reforms when it pushes hard enough. But it must keep pushing. The recommendations in “Cut the Tape” are a good place to start but certainly shouldn’t be the end.