Chicago’s entitlement and permitting approval times are not nearly as bad as...
Researchers at ULCA studied permitting and entitlement approval times in Los Angeles. They are pretty terrible compared to Chicago. tl;dr: Los Angeles, 500 days; Chicago, 180 days. Read on for some...
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How to map where I traveled when I went to Gorinchem, NL
On Monday, December 4, 2023, I wanted to ride a line in the Netherlands that I hadn’t yet, which is called the “MerwedeLingelijn” and goes between Dordrecht and Geldermalsen. In the NS journey planner...
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Illinois updates its affordable housing enforcement statute to take effect in...
Illinois has a statute that requires every covered municipality to have an affordable housing stock of 10 percent relative to its total housing stock. The Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act...
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Biking around Texel Island
Saturday, May 13, 2023, in the Netherlands on day 3 (day 12 of my trip). Day 12 I had discussed with my friend that I wanted to go somewhere new and do something significant, likely distant from...
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Danielle Allen on the geography of power sharing and how I think it applies...
Danielle Allen is a professor of public policy at Harvard University. She also started the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at Harvard. Danielle was interviewed on the California YIMBY “Abundance”...
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Status of vacant lots and housing in Chicago
How many houses, buildings, units, and lots are vacant in Chicago depends on how you measure them. I’m aware of at least five ways, each with varying degrees of accuracy and coverage. 1. Vacant units,...
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Chicago City Council could end up voting to ban new dollar stores
Ald. O’Shea (19th Ward) has proposed an ordinance with 35 cosponsors that would ban dollar stores within two miles of another dollar store and within 1/8th mile of an “R” zoning district. The...
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Show expansion of transit networks over the decades using Transit Explorer
Yonah Freemark just launched the biggest expansion of transit network mapping on Transit Explorer and I built a new feature for TE that allows users to visualize the size of a network by decade from...
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Chicago proposes prohibiting gas for heating & cooking in new construction homes
Update: The Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance (CABO) was sent to the rules committee today, 1/24/24. It will need 26 votes to be re-referred to the environmental protection and energy...
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Letter to the editor: Illinois cities shouldn’t have the ability to impose...
My letter to the editor was published as guest commentary in The Daily Line State Rep. Kam Buckner’s bill to stop cities from mandating specific numbers of off-street car parking at homes and...
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Illinois might join the country’s league of states adopting land use reforms
Illinois House Representative Kam Buckner (26th district) has introduced three bills that would adopt land use reforms across all or a lot of the state. This is a trend happening across the United...
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Why courtyard buildings aren’t allowed in Chicago anymore
Chicago Urbanist Twitter was abuzz this month when renderings of a proposed construction courtyard building were published (they’re shown below), given that the historical building typology hadn’t...
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Letter to the editor: Legalize housing abundance across Illinois
My letter to the editor of the Chicago Sun-Times was published on February 26, 2024. State Rep. Kam Buckner of Chicago has introduced another land use bill that Illinoisans should support. The bill...
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It’s time to submit a “witness slip” in favor of the Illinois ADU bill
The ADU legalization bill that I discussed last month in a post about State Rep. Kam Buckner’s three statewide land use reforms has been assigned a committee and hearing date and time. This means...
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How many more homes does Chicagoland need and is it 120,383?
Up For Growth, a national “moar housing” research group, publishes an annual report about underproduction of housing in 193 regions, including Chicagoland. In their 2023 report they found that there’s...
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Why Chicago should have a rental registry
This is a publicly accessible scratchpad of what I’m thinking. As I already said, Chicago should have a rental registry, a database of dwelling units that are rented to tenants, for at least two...
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The best ideas from Mayor Johnson’s “Cut The Tape” initiative
Mayor Johnson and staff in the Mayor’s Office announced today at the Chicago Cultural Center the finality of administrative and legislative strategies – called “Cut The Tape” – developed for the...
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Comment to Chicago’s committee on zoning about expanding ADUs
This doesn’t fully match with what I spoke at the Chicago City Council committee on zoning, landmarks, and building standards on April 16, 2024 (meeting agenda), because it was written for about two...
View ArticleComment to zoning committee about why a full ZBA is important
Oral public comment given on April 9, 2024 Hello members of the Chicago city council committee on zoning, landmarks, and building standards. My name is Steven Vance. I am a resident of the city of...
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Ald. Lawson re-introduces ordinance to jumpstart sagging ADU program
I wrote this summary of the ADU changes this proposed ordinance (O2023-2075) would implement (with my commentary in parentheses). Before you read on, though, please sign the Urban Environmentalists...
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