site plan and rendering showing the features and buildings planned for the first game at the stadium
site plan and rendering showing the features and buildings planned for the first game at the stadium. Image: Gensler

Chicago Fire share the stadium plan they plan to share with the Plan Commission

August 22, 2025 / / 0 Comments

The Chicago Fire owner, Joe Mansueto, plans to build a soccer stadium on “The 78”, a vacant property in the South Loop. The 78 is a planned development that was approved about six years ago to have office towers and about 10,000 homes in multiple buildings. Since the stadium will significantly alter the approved plan, Related Midwest, the owner of The 78, needs to present the revision to Chicago Plan Commission and gain their approval before also gaining approval from the City Council’s zoning committee and City Council.

Rendering of the stadium, looking north-northeast. Other renderings from the set show the area between the stadium and the riverwalk eventually being redeveloped into buildings and differently-designed outdoor spaces.

Here’s what’s changed

We can see what Mansueto and RM are proposing because they submitted their zoning change application to revise the PD back in July, which was subsequently posted in the City Clerk’s online legislation database. (A zoning change application and a Planned Development amendment are amendments to city law; refer to the approved plan in this PD 1434 document.)

  • The soccer stadium would be located approximately between 13th and 14th Streets. The rights of way for these two streets would be delineated and “dedicated” to the public.
  • Metra tracks would remain where they are. At the north edge of the site they enter the site about 185′ west of Clark Street, and then gradually shift to the west to hug Clark Street. The original plan would realign the tracks so that new streets could intersect Clark Street.
  • For the planners, the PD subareas’ boundaries are reconfigured.
  • Crescent Park is out of the plan. This central park would follow the historical Chicago River alignment, before it was straightened from Polk Street to 18th Street in 1926.
  • The riverwalk would be narrowed to 40′ from the currently approved plan for a 75′ wide riverwalk and 25′ “riverfront amenity zone” adjacent to buildings. (City law requires riverwalks to be a minimum of 30′ wide.)
Proposed open space plan

The stadium would have these pedestrian and bicycle access points:

  1. Wells Street, south from Polk Street
  2. Wentworth Avenue, north from 18th Street
  3. A newly built LaSalle Street, south from the elevated Roosevelt Road. This is also where transit riders from the Roosevelt ‘L’ station or any of the buses that use Roosevelt or Clark would access the site.

There would not be access from Clark Street and points east; some of the Dearborn Park and Burnham Station residents may prefer this, given how some of them reacted when a new CTA Red Line station was proposed at the existing substation on the east side of Clark Street at 15th Street. RM eventually moved the proposal to be within The 78.

The proposed site plan also shows a publicly owned parking structure in phase one, below the Roosevelt Road elevation.

Site plan showing the stadium and a publicly owned parking structure

What’s next

Expect another 3rd Ward town hall, in September before the next Plan Commission meeting on September 18. The Plan Commission agenda hasn’t been set so it’s not confirmed that the development team will present on September 18.

The plan can also change again, between now and the Plan Commission meeting. What’s presented at Plan Commission will be what is presented to City Council.

Ald. Fuentes: “Additional dwelling units historically in the city of Chicago have been naturally occurring affordable units for our families”

July 27, 2025 / / 0 Comments

26th Ward Alderperson Jessie Fuentes responded to 9th Ward Alderperson Anthony Beal at the July 15, 2025, meeting of the Chicago Committee on Zoning, Landmarks, and Building Standards, and added her own perspective on why ADUs are important for families. The text of her statement is below.

The committee voted to approve the citywide ADUs ordinance but it was deferred and published the following day during the City Council meeting.

First and foremost, you know I have to correct the record. Every body of research and data will tell you the immigrants pay taxes and the city of Chicago and any other city that they live in. In fact, we won’t even, we won’t be able to build our city without immigrants.

Now for the reason that we’re here. ’cause it’s not about migrants, immigrants not paying taxes, it’s about housing. And we had a housing shortage well before migrants arrived to the city of Chicago. And it is because there is so much red tape around development, around adding units and around bringing affordability to our communities.

That’s not some sort of, like, tall tale story. It’s a reality that many of our communities experience whether you are representing Wrigleyville, whether you’re representing Hermosa, whether you’re representing Humboldt Park or any other community across the city of Chicago.

The reality is, is that there’s a lot of red tape that small landlords in particular have to jump through just to be able to provide units for our community. Additional dwelling units historically in the city of Chicago have been naturally occurring affordable units for our families.

Often when people are creating basements, attics, or whether that’s a coach house in the back of their yard, they’re doing so for relatives, for friends so that they could keep them close. Or for a neighbor that may not be able to afford a market rate unit in our community.

Landlords shouldn’t have to go through so many different loopholes or to be in favor with their alderperson to be able to add a unit for a family to live in. And so I’m okay with letting go some of control because I didn’t come to be an elected official to keep control of every problem in my ward.

I came to be a representative of the people and people in my community, in the 26th Ward, are telling me every single day that they can’t afford to live in my community because of the increase in rent, the astronomical increases that we see in property taxes.

The type of rapid gentrification that we are seeing in communities like mine is a form of violence. When you displace people the way families in my community have been displaced, you have to be able to look at the toolbox to say, what tools am I gonna add here so that I can preserve families in my community?

For me that means making sure we tack on fees for the demolition and deconversions, that tenants have the right of first refusal and that homeowners and building owners have the opportunity to add additional dwelling units if that’s what’s gonna keep people in place.

And so today I’ll be voting yes on this ordinance. Thank you, chairman. Thank you.

The transcript above was automatically generated by Vimeo AI and edited by me.

Alderperson Burnett on the dais at City Council Chambers
Alderperson Burnett on the dais at City Council Chambers

ADUs passes the Chicago zoning committee, City Council comes next

July 15, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Alderpersons Quinn and Mitchell “deferred and published” the ADU ordinance on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, which means it was not voted on and must be taken up again at a future City Council meeting.

The Chicago City Council zoning committee voted to approve citywide accessory dwelling units (ADUs). I was sick this morning and late to the meeting so I couldn’t sign up for the public comment roster. My planned comment is at the end of this post.

The most substantial change from the last proposal (circa May 2024) is that ADUs will be allowed in residential buildings in all zoning districts subject to the following caps:

  • RS-1: one ADU permit per block (both sides of the street) per year
  • RS-2: two…
  • R3-3: three…
  • Other zoning districts: no cap

There is also an owner occupancy requirement, to be proved at the time of permit application, to build an ADU in the RS zoning districts. The version text that passed is not yet available online, but it will be posted under ordinance SO2024-0008918.

Read WTTW’s report on what alderpersons said about ADUs, including the despicable comments about migrants by one of them.

The full City Council will vote on this ordinance tomorrow; I think it will pass by one or two votes. The lists below shows how committee members voted, approving it 13 to 7 (with all zoning committee members present).

Yes on ADUs:

  • La Spata
  • Hall
  • Ramirez
  • Sigcho-Lopez
  • Fuentes
  • Burnett
  • Cruz
  • Conway
  • Quezada
  • Villegas
  • Knudsen
  • Clay
  • Lawson

No on ADUs:

  • Hopkins
  • Dowell
  • Harris
  • Beale
  • Moore
  • Mosley
  • Reilly

Public comment

Hi my name is Steven Vance. I live in the 34th Ward and I’m a volunteer member of Abundant Housing Illinois. Today is a test for the Committee on Zoning. Alderperson Lawson and Mayor Johnson have presented a new version of allowing accessory dwelling units, including coach houses and other types of ADUs, for your favorable vote.  The test is whether this body will recognize the mounting evidence of a housing crisis in Chicago and adopt ordinances that will more quickly chip away at the housing shortage.

The most glaring problem, measured by national researchers, is that Chicago’s rents are climbing faster than in any of the other top 50 metropolitan areas, and for sale inventory is so low that houses sell in days at prices tens of thousands of dollars over asking. “Sounds good” for the individual owners and sellers, respectively, but it’s bad for everyone else. 

The city’s housing department staff know what is known nationally: that ADUs are one of the most sensible and impactful ways to increase housing options and reduce rents. With the ADU ordinance before you today Chicago would join Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, and Austin, cities where ADUs have been legal since before the pilot began. 

To those alders who sometimes or often disagree with Mayor Johnson’s agenda, consider that allowing ADUs across Chicago was first proposed by Mayor Emanuel in his administration’s final five-year housing plan back in 2019, and that it was during Mayor Lightfoot’s administration that the council started the three-year pilot program. 

To those who worry that ADUs bring in more children to the neighborhood who might crowd schools, consider that across the city enrollment in public schools is declining and more families and children staying in the city would be a blessing. Mayor Johnson’s amendment considered this by capping the number of ADUs that can be built on each block. 

I’m given two minutes so I can’t address every concern, but this committee has had plenty of time to address the concern of Chicagoans: the Chicagoans whose rents are rising too fast for them to afford, and who are having to move every year in search of a cheaper place away from their friends, family, and jobs. The ADU pilot program has brought 100s of new homes online in the last four years without any subsidy from the city. More ADUs means more homes for families to care for someone else: a grandparent staying nearby to care for a newborn, an adult child starting a new family near their parents, and seniors who would age in place by downsizing into a smaller home on their own property or down the street. Vote yes and pass the test. 

A row of bungalow houses in Portage Park, some of which have basement ADUs (the legal status for each isn't known)
A row of bungalow houses in Portage Park, some of which have basement ADUs (the legal status for each isn't known)

Allowing ADUs across Chicago: it’s never been more real

July 12, 2025 / / 0 Comments

tl;dr: sign the petition so I can send the zoning committee the biggest marker of citywide support for citywide ADUs, and then call your alderperson on Monday to ask them how they plan to vote

Mayor Johnson indicated earlier this week that he is interested in legalizing ADUs citywide next week. Fran Spielman reported in the Chicago Sun-Times that he remains steadfast in ensuring that the option is available in all residential parts of the city. To that effect, he plans to submit a substitute ordinance at the next zoning committee meeting on Tuesday, July 15. 

ADUs were re-legalized in Chicago starting on May 1, 2021, in a pilot program available to property owners in five areas of the city. The pilot program turned four years old two months ago.

An ordinance introduced by Alderperson Lawson (44th Ward) over two years ago would dissolve the pilot areas and allow ADUs across the city and make other program fixes. However, the proposed ordinance requires that property owners in certain zoning districts obtain permission from the Zoning Board of Appeals before being able to apply for an ADU building permit.

While Lawson has argued that the votes have existed to pass his version, the mayor’s position is that that difference in treatment based on a property’s zoning district, which alderpersons can change, could continue the problem that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found in October 2023.

I think that the mayor’s forthcoming ordinance is likely, like Lawson’s ordinance, to allow ADUs in all zoning districts (including existing residential buildings improperly zoned into M districts), allow both a coach house and an interior ADU on the same property, and allow existing parking to be removed so ground-level accessible coach houses can be built. In addition, I think it’s possible that the mayor’s version could keep some of the pilot program’s owner occupancy and maximum ADUs per block standards to ensure political feasibility in City Council.

After nearly eight years of ADU advocacy – participating in a task force during a previous mayor’s administration, presenting on panels, sharing ADU data with journalists and the public, and garnering support for a geographic expansion of ADUs in the city and Illinois – my primary interest is honing in to ensure that an ordinance legalizing ADUs across the whole of Chicago passes.

Take action: I’d like for every reader to sign this petition, created by Abundant Housing Illinois, to show the zoning committee and City Council that there is widespread support for ADUs.

Contacting your alderperson directly on Monday would be a bonus.

Aerial photo of the Humboldt Park neighborhood in Chicago

Guest post: Chicago has multiple crises that more housing could mitigate

June 23, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Chicago currently faces a dire financial crisis that could leave the city with a $1.2 billion budget deficit in 2026 and a potentially higher deficit in 2027. One way the city can attempt to chip away at this deficit is by expanding access to affordable and abundant residential housing across the city. This article by Joshua Chodor focuses on the communities impacted by Chicago’s shortage of affordable residential housing, why more home choices will be needed and the potential strategies that can create housing abundance.

In his 1999 book Homeland Earth, French philosopher and sociologist Edgar Morin developed a term that would encapsulate the interconnectivity and complexity of modern crises across the world. Spurred by growing fears of global warming, resource depletion and environmental destruction leading to novel diseases, Morin defined his concerns through the term “polycrisis“. 

As Morin projected, today’s modern polycrisis is defined by the convergence of climate change, international migration and humanitarian crises, the increasing rise of authoritarian governments and misinformation driving civil and social unrest globally. To call Chicago’s myriad issues a polycrisis may diminish the word’s more complex meaning. However, when identifying Chicago’s critical issues – a budget crisis, a housing crisis, a cost of living crisis and the political target that the current presidential administration has set on the city – polycrisis emerges as a valid description of the situation.

Chicago must follow a common sense agenda that creates an abundance of housing at all price points in order to alleviate these intertwined crises.

Chicago is only now seeing positive population growth after years of decline, but the stagnant pace of development has left residents with few affordable home choices within the communities they live and work. Monthly rents are reaching new highs and continued inflation contributes to a cost of living crisis impacting everyone. Rising rents with a minimal volume of new unit development not only inhibits those seeking to move into Chicago from elsewhere, but also may price existing residents out. This cycle could potentially displace long-time Chicagoans without mitigating the severe housing shortage that currently exists. 

To make Chicago a more affordable place to live for its current and future residents – and untangle this polycrisis – the city must be laser-focused on creating housing abundance. Building more housing is directly linked to the migration of new residents into the city, specifically from political migration, climate migration and international migration. 

1. Political Migration

As Republican-led states legislate against LGBTQ+ rights, attack marginalized communities and dismantle abortion and women’s healthcare access, at-risk groups and individuals will increasingly seek refuge in “blue” areas that offer them the rights and dignities that they deserve everywhere. Governor J.B. Pritzker has ensured that Illinois remains safe and welcoming to those communities unfairly targeted by an arbitrary and capricious war against anything considered “woke” – a catch-all pejorative used as an insult toward those seeking social justice. Chicago – and Illinois as a whole – must show it supports individuals of all backgrounds by expanding opportunities for new housing. In addition, as some state public health services are refuting science-backed advancements in healthcare such as the removal of fluoride from drinking water, Chicago is in a prime position to benefit from a potential influx of red state transplants for reasons related to their health and welfare. 

2. Climate Migration

After years of residential growth, sun belt states face glaring climate concerns related to extreme heat and water access. Climate change is worsening storms, floods and hurricanes, and the current presidential administration has all but asserted that it does not see this as an issue. With extreme weather and the dismantling of NOAA, FEMA and other protective agencies, many areas of the country will increasingly become unlivable – at least, for those who don’t have the means to move elsewhere. Natural disasters have become more intense, potentially jeopardizing residents’ access to clean drinking water, a situation which will drive migration out of the most threatened areas. The Great Lakes region will, in all expectation, grow in population as a direct and indirect result of unstable weather in other regions. Chicagoland will be a primary destination as one of the largest markets that can sustain a sizable population influx. Without additional housing, the climate-based migration of wealthier families and individuals could price out existing marginalized communities from their homes; Chicago must be ready for this increase of potential new residents.

3. International & Humanitarian Migration

When discussing the topic of immigration, the conversation inevitably focuses on the southern border and the law enforcement actions which target and demonize those attempting to legally migrate into the country. A clear example of this is in Texas, where razor wire has been installed on floating buoys to dissuade migration, an inhumane strategy that has led to an increase in drowning-related deaths. Some states actively dehumanize immigrants through legislation meant to instill fear in already vulnerable communities. The consequences of this crisis in Illinois magnify a noticeable difference between policies in Chicagoland compared to the rest of the state. While Chicago has strengthened its “sanctuary” protections over recent months, more than a dozen Illinois counties enacted “non-sanctuary” laws or regulations designed to antagonize immigrant communities. It is clear why international migrants, if given the opportunity, would go to a place that offers them more protection compared to the cruelty that other locations seem to enjoy inflicting. This problem will remain pervasive and, until states no longer enact dehumanizing and cruel immigration-related laws, the Chicagoland region must create more affordable and safe housing options for vulnerable immigrant communities.

Chicago must prioritize expanding its housing supply and residential development in the city and surrounding areas in order to not only mitigate existing financial concerns, but also proactively prepare for an influx of new residents. Policies, both implicit (aldermanic prerogative) and explicit (segregationist zoning codes) have created a set of individual yet interconnected crises that have stymied housing growth, worsening Chicago’s budget shortfall while maintaining racial and ethnic divisions through the denial of critical new affordable housing options. This uncertainty will continue to leave residents – both current and prospective – stuck with fewer affordable and viable housing options. 

Chicago must address its intertwined issues holistically, as its current piecemeal approach has severely hindered the city’s ability to be a desirable and affordable place to call home. In a future post, I will identify short- and long-term actions and suggest solutions toward alleviating Chicago’s housing shortage, such as expanding the city’s accessory dwelling units (ADU) ordinance, allowing 4-flats by right, removing parking mandates, and enacting a land value tax, among other ideas. 

Fortunately, a number of volunteer organizations are focusing on addressing Chicago’s housing shortage, such as Abundant Housing Illinois and Strong Towns Chicago. That these groups have grown drastically in size over the past year is a clear sign that city residents will no longer sit back and wait for City Hall to unravel the threads of Chicago’s polycrisis.  

Josh Chodor is a master’s student in the University of Illinois Chicago’s Urban Planning and Policy program as well as a member of Abundant Housing Illinois and Strong Towns Chicago.