It often takes Stephen Sise years to get housing projects off the ground in Chicago, and too much time, he says, can quietly sink new developments.
“Time is money and time kills all deals,” said Sise, a developer for Golub and Company, which has built housing across Chicago and around the country. “It’s very costly to build anything these days for various reasons. But part of that cost is certainly time to hold, to carry land, vacant land that you’re waiting to build on.”
With Illinois coping with a statewide housing shortage and rents continuing to spike, Gov. JB Pritzker’s proposed Building Up Illinois Development, or BUILD, plan aims to ramp up supply and expedite housing development by offering regulatory workarounds to developers.
But in the midst of a reelection campaign, and a potential 2028 presidential run on the horizon, Pritzker’s plan throws the governor into the ring in an unusual, non-partisan fight against local officials, mayors, and some members of Chicago’s powerful City Council.
Key proposals of the governor’s plan rein in the power local officials have over new housing development in their communities. The plan would eliminate local bans on Accessory Dwelling Units, ADUs, and establish a 30-day window for municipalities to either approve or deny a housing developer’s zoning permit.
If they fail to meet that deadline, developers can hire a third party to review their new permit. Those third-party reviewers would have to meet certain qualifications set by the state, but local municipalities would have jurisdiction to require additional qualifications tailored to their preferences.
The proposal has yet to be approved by either the Illinois House or Senate. Olivia Ortega, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, said the plan would make housing more accessible to small businesses and families. The hope is that people buy up empty lots and build new homes to rent out.
“We’ve really seen starter homes become extinct,” Ortega said. “We want the barrier to entry to be much lower for those folks, so that it isn’t just large developers that are able to actually navigate these processes.”
But Pritzker’s proposal has received heavy blowback from the Illinois Municipal League and the Metropolitan Mayor’s Caucus, two groups representing local officials across the state and the greater Chicago area.
“Believe me, every mayor wants more effective, affordable… [middle class] housing in our communities,” said Mark Kownick, mayor of northwest suburban Cary and a member of the IML. “But in order for this to happen, you’ve got to work with the municipalities.”
Opposition toward the proposed 30-day deadline is relatively widespread among local leaders. Neil James, executive director of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, says the vast majority of their 275 members are concerned about losing local control.
A ‘pretty short time frame’
State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, a Democrat from Oswego who used to be an Aurora alderperson, said the zoning process includes examining water infrastructure, electricity lines, taking soil samples and more. She said when permits take a long time to be approved, it’s for a good reason.
“There’s just so much that goes into it,” Kifowit said. “The state should not be undercutting local control when it comes to these very, very important issues on zoning and housing.”
Kownick said zoning permits often take 30 to 60 days to approve, longer if it’s a complicated development. Romeoville’s mayor, John Noak, said the proposed deadline is a “pretty short time frame.”
“I think that in the majority of cases, communities try and review things as quickly as they possibly can in a realistic manner,” Noak said “But we also don’t want to rush reviews so that we end up creating situations where we allow, or miss issues that may become safety issues for those residents or those neighbors.”
Pritzker’s office defended the window, citing a 2021 study by the National Association of Home Builders finding that nearly a quarter of the full price for a new single family home comes from regulatory costs; half of those costs occur before construction even begins.
Ortega said every additional delay increases “the cost to complete the development, and those are costs that ultimately fall on the renter or the home buyer.”
Outlook on ADU ban lift a mixed bag
Reactions to the proposal to lift ADU bans statewide has been more of a mixed bag.
ADUs, also known as granny flats, split up single residencies into multiple, smaller homes. Mayors have stood staunchly against a statewide ban lift, but a handful of Chicago Council members welcome more granny flats in their ward and across the city, as shown by their recent decision to legalize ADUs citywide.
Opponents of Pritzker’s ADU plan argue that granny flats can strain existing utility infrastructure by overburdening utility lines that were only intended to serve one residence. Noak warns that when a single-family property is divided for multiple families, power lines and water lines might not be able to keep up.
“I don’t think anybody wants to see a scenario where wastewater is backing up into people’s homes,” Noak said. “One size doesn’t fit all for each community. There are areas where they work and there’s areas where they don’t, and that’s why the locals are on the ground.”
At a conference for the Illinois Association of Realtors in April, Pritzker pushed back on local concerns about zoning and ADUs, telling the crowd, “Don’t let anyone tell you that this is some kind of radical removal of local zoning. That is not what this is.”
“It is literally about just adding a few more homes everywhere in the state,” Pritzker said. “We’re not talking about putting a 100-unit building into a small, ranch-style housing area or neighborhood.”
Some Chicago alderpersons remain skeptical
Chicago’s longstanding aldermanic prerogative, which gives Council members extensive authority over zoning rights in their ward, makes developing in the city difficult. It also leaves the City Council with a lot to lose should the governor’s plan pass.
The City Council has approved the construction of granny flats in the city, though the measure also allows aldermen in neighborhoods dominated by single-family homes the authority to opt in or out of the program. Ald. Marty Quinn, (13th), who led a push to ensure that authority, says Pritzker’s plan would bring more people into his ward — which is already “at capacity.”
Quinn’s ward is one of the more populous areas in the city. He regularly hears from constituents that overcrowding has affected schools, parking and police response times. Quinn raised concerns about a third party being able to swoop in and side-step the authority he and his constituents hold.
“I think it would be very difficult to silence the residents on a given block and not afford them the opportunity to weigh in,” Quinn said. “The residents here don’t take highly to outsiders telling them what’s going to happen on their block. I can tell you that unequivocally.”
Ald. Bennett Lawson, (44th), former chair of the City Council Zoning committee, said he is on board with Pritzker’s intentions to help speed up the development process, but the “devil is in the details.” He said a 30-day timeline for zoning permits might be too tight and suggested closer to a 90-day window.
The BUILD plan also loosens some building code regulations, allowing only one staircase for entry and exit in multi-family homes and reducing per-dwelling parking requirements to no more than half a space per multi-family unit and one space per single family home.
Mayors in suburban areas have pushed back on reduced parking requirements, with concerns that parking reductions might help development in Chicago, but not in the suburbs.
“I have a beautiful, vibrant, thriving downtown that my constituents always say that we don’t have enough parking for,” Kownick said. “So you’re going to bring in more high density housing and not allow for parking? That’s just not good planning. People drive to work, they drive downtown, they drive to the train that will take them into Chicago.”
Ortega argued the plan wouldn’t restrict parking in communities that need it, saying that developers will understand the needs of the community before building in it.
“We don’t want any housing to fail to be built because a parking requirement got in the way,” Ortega said. “We want to make sure that there’s flexibility if less parking can fit there, rather than the home not being built at all because they wouldn’t be able to fit a certain higher number of parking spots.”