Mayor Brandon Johnson took the first step Friday to overhaul Chicago’s bloated development processes, making more than 100 recommendations on how to streamline licensing, permitting and development plans.
Johnson released his “Cut the Tape” report on Friday targeting the first part of his three-part approach to simplify the city’s housing and commercial development approval processes. The report kicks off work on the first front — to build faster — with the goal of cutting the red tape that’s long bogged down city development.
The report aims to answer the question: What does the city need to do to enable development?
The answer is a lot, the report found. It includes recommendations for development process improvement, including enhancements in internal and external communication; accountability; optimizing resources; and eliminating redundant processes, according to a news release from Johnson’s office.
The report also highlights Johnson’s “10 Big Bets” — “signature” recommendations that address some of the biggest issues concerning the development process.
“For far too long, we have heard that it is difficult to build in Chicago, and developers and contractors have told us that they faced so many hurdles and red tape in the process to develop housing and commercial properties,” Johnson said during a news conference Friday.
For decades, Chicago mayors have attempted to streamline City Hall’s notoriously slow and arcane bureaucracy to accelerate approval of licensing, permitting and development plans to help businesses and reduce their costs. But the work never seems to be done.
Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot signed an executive order within hours of taking office stripping City Council members of their iron-fisted control over licensing and permitting in their wards and vowed to do the same with the so-called “aldermanic prerogative” over zoning. But the Council refused to go along.
Even Lightfoot’s allies, including then-Zoning Committee Chair Tom Tunney (44th), opposed the move. And Lightfoot lost her reelection bid before achieving the reforms of a system she had long argued was at the root of so much City Hall corruption.
City leaders involved in the report conceded in a Friday media briefing how broken the development process is. But they also shared a hearty amount of optimism.
John Roberson, the city’s chief operating officer, said those 100 proposals aren’t just a wish list — they’re rooted in best practices. The mayor’s office spoke to more than 100 city staff, 90 external stakeholders and six peer cities to compile its report. Peer cities include Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
“It is incredibly important that we have an ecosystem that enables efficient, affordable housing and commercial development,” Roberson said during a news conference Friday. “There is tremendous work happening downtown and in our neighborhoods, but all of that means nothing if we have a bureaucratic process that slows things down and inhibits us.”
At the top of Johnson’s “big bets” in the report is creating a new position in the mayor’s office: director of process improvement. That individual will hold departments involved in the development process accountable and shepherd changes under the report. The city has already started the hiring process for that role.
Phillip Beckham III, principal at P3 Markets, heralded the report as “the new good book for developers” and the city of Chicago.
Beckham III sees an important common thread in Johnson’s signature recommendations: slashing bureaucratic red tape to get to a “yes” faster. He said that’s crucial for minority and women-owned development firms and thanked Johnson for listening to their concerns.
“Time is absolutely money that, typically, Black and Brown developers do not have,” Beckham III said. “Capital is always a barrier, and as things are drawn out so long, it absolutely crushes your cash flow.”
Other recommendations:
- Policy: Initiate expedited reviews for affordable housing projects
- Zoning: Adopt transformational zoning changes, including eliminating minimum parking requirements, streamlining special-use permits and more
- Boards & Commissions: Evaluate the feasibility of streamlining the Community Development Commission and Chicago Plan Commission
- Design & Construction: Streamline the Department of Housing’s Architectural and Technical Standards manual
- Design: Reduce the number of internal design review meetings in the Department of Planning and Development from three to one; reassess the role of the Committee on Design
- Environmental Review: Eliminate Phase 1 & 2 environmental reviews as a requirement for the sale for environmentally cleared city-owned parcels
- Finance: Expand the pilot for cash advance payment options
- Finance: Create an online “city wallet” account to improve options for customer billing, online payments and debt check
- Procurement: Evaluate the feasibility of reducing the administrative burden of the city’s Economic Disclosure Statement
