Chicago has made substantial progress in encouraging more development near public transit in the South and West sides — five years after adopting a plan aimed to do just that.
In 2021, city leaders created an Equitable Transit-Oriented Development, or ETOD, plan. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at the time that the plan would “expand … access and give our most disinvested neighborhoods the long overdue opportunity to enjoy these benefits while not being forced out of the community they call home.”
The city had long pushed for transit-oriented development, or TOD, projects near CTA bus or rail stops but shifted its framework to ensure more development in historically disinvested neighborhoods.
There’s been “substantial progress” on more than half of the 42 recommendations the city of Chicago laid out in its 2021 policy, though more work needs to be done, according to a May report from Elevated Chicago, a coalition of community-based organizations, artists, developers and civic leaders.
“It’s a huge amount of progress. I think we should be collectively proud as a city that we have made so much progress in intentionally investing in more projects, investing resources and technical assistance,” Juan Sebastian Arias, executive director of Elevated Chicago, said. “There’s a lot to be proud of, and there’s still quite a bit of work to do.”
Arias said developers have embraced more of the ETOD plan’s principles. And developers can often receive low-income housing tax credits for these projects, in addition to city funding.
The plan also laid the foundation for the city’s Connected Communities Ordinance, passed in July 2022, that was “a landmark reform to Chicago’s zoning code,” according to the report. The ordinance created incentives for developers to build more units than typically allowed outside of transit zones and limited residential parking near public transit, among other provisions.
Also in 2022, Lightfoot allocated $10 million from the Chicago Recovery Plan toward the first phase of the ETOD grant program — a huge win, according to Arias. Much of the funding went to mixed-use projects, including Starling, a community space in North Lawndale, and the Little Angels Learning Center in Englewood.
Projects like Starling and Little Angels show that the type of ETOD projects are diversifying, Arias said.
“That’s also reflective of what community residents are often looking for,” he said. “These are all the important components of what it takes to have a vibrant, walkable neighborhood that connects people to opportunity, connects people to whatever it is that they need. It’s grocery stores; it’s community space; it’s all those kinds of different investments.”
There are more than 100 ETOD projects in the pipeline, as of 2026, according to Elevated Chicago. While many are in the North Side, there’s a growing number on the South and West sides, with many clustered around the Green Line and theRed Line Extension. Some of those projects include the recently opened Westhaven Park Station apartments, along the Green Line, and Gateway 79, a 5-acre mixed-use development with multifamily and senior housing near the Red Line’s 79th Street station.
The city’s 42 recommendations lay out ways to encourage more ETOD projects, such as hiring a full-time manager focused on ETOD, allowing for more small-scale housing near transit zones and creating architectural design templates to streamline the approval process. Significant progress has been made on 22 of the recommendations, with 20 having “some progress,” according to the report.
One area that still needs focus is updating the city’s zoning code, Arias said. For example, Arias pointed to how the city’s zoning code still doesn’t allow for three-flats, a key missing middle housing type, to be built near transit.
“We have a big challenge as a city in that a lot of two-flats and three-flats that are currently existing, or that currently are affordable to working-class families, are being lost or deconverted into single-family homes,” Arias said. “We don’t have strong enough tools to disincentivize the loss of those units.”
Arias hopes this work and more can be accomplished by the ETOD Working Group, co-chaired by Elevated Chicago and the mayor’s office. At the group’s recent retreat, Arias said they spent time discussing zoning reforms and renter protections. There’s also been a push to integrate ETOD with other city initiatives, such as Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Cut the Tape that aims to speed the development process for companies.
The mayor’s office said in a statement it “was pleased to review the progress which has been made since 2021, while acknowledging there is still much work to do as we continue to collaborate with Elevated Chicago’s ETOD Working Group to advance measures which contribute to our shared goals and collective work of building a more connected, sustainable, and affordable city for every Chicagoan.”
The group also discussed the Red Line Extension, which will create opportunities for more ETOD on the South Side. Some of those opportunities are already being explored, Arias said, like the 2.5-acre parcel across from the Red Line’s 95th/Dan Ryan station that has a request for proposal out by the city and the Chicago Transit Authority.
“We’re going to have to collectively — as a city, as a state — put just as much investment into development projects, into affordable housing, into community ownership opportunities all along the Red Line train stations as much as we’re investing in the train stations,” Arias said. “It’s really important to not lose sight of the fact that transit is essential for connecting people to opportunity.”
Starling lets people work, play and celebrate
Starling, an events space in North Lawndale, has been busy with bookings this spring.
It has hosted graduation parties and prom send-offs, as well as comedy shows, movie nights, book launches, art exhibitions and even a marriage proposal — showcasing life’s joys and passions.
Starling counts more than 825 bookings since its soft opening in October 2024. About 80 individuals and organizations have used the space, including North Lawndale residents, nonprofits, elected officials and artists, according to Duo Development, the design studio and developer that owns Starling.
The building, 3243 W. 16th St., includes a workshop area, meeting room, three outdoor terraces, a garden and a sound studio. Anyone can reserve space by the hour, with prices ranging from $35 an hour for the garden and $45 for the sound studio.
A cafe, Monday Coffee, opened in 2024 and is the building’s only permanent tenant.
The idea for Starling began in 2018 when Duo Development was invited to work on a Quality of Life Plan led by the North Lawndale Coordinating Council, which guides planning in the under-resourced West Side neighborhood.
Duo offered real estate development education in North Lawndale and forged relationships in the neighborhood.
It kept hearing about “the need for a space that wasn’t overly programmed to fix deficits,” Duo co-founder Carlos Robles-Shanahan said. In North Lawndale “lots of buildings focus on workforce development, violence prevention, etc., which is needed. But residents constantly expressed the need for places to exist and have a good time,” he said.
Robles-Shanahan and his brother Rafael Robles founded Duo and are currently directors at the company, along with their sister Karla Robles. The siblings have varied backgrounds in architecture, real estate development, public policy, design research and education. They came to the U.S. from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in 2004 and have lived across the Chicago area.
“We are undocumented immigrants from Mexico and were among the earliest recipients of DACA,” Robles-Shanahan said, referring to the federal policy that protects eligible undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. “So we understand the deep importance of land and place to your life outcomes. We wanted to blend our experience with our skill sets and bring something special to the neighborhood that honored residents’ aspirations.”
In 2022, Duo acquired the former vacant lot that Starling now sits on, partly because it was one of the emptiest areas in North Lawndale and would benefit from development.
Nearly $1.9 million in grants and loans helped launch Starling. Funding included a $470,000 loan from IFF, formerly Illinois Facilities Fund, a $650,000 We Rise Together grant hosted at the Chicago Community Trust, a $250,000 Equitable Transit-Oriented Development grant and others.
The ETOD program awards grants to projects near train stations and bus lines to give residents better access to housing, jobs, services and commerce through public transportation. Starling is close to Kedzie on the Pink Line, as well as bus lines. ETOD funds are issued as reimbursements for eligible expenses.
Other ETOD-funded projects include co-op grocery Wild Onion in Rogers Park and an East Garfield Park building that houses Chicago Printworks and three other small businesses.
Grants like ETOD “allow projects like Starling to become real,” Robles-Shanahan said. “In real estate development, one of the largest culprits for unaffordability is the source of capital and expectations of outsized returns.”
Funding Starling “was really difficult,” Robles-Shanahan said. “As soon as we said North Lawndale, any regular bank was out.”
Grants such as ETOD “are absolutely instrumental for the success of projects like this, especially in heavily disinvested and discriminated neighborhoods,” he said.
In January, Starling launched a shared ownership model. It plans to share a portion of profits with its most frequent visitors in the form of $500 cash payments. If there are no profits, it will issue $500 worth of rental credits for space at Starling.
Robles-Shanahan believes Starling’s presence has given a boost to North Lawndale, where new homes are being built. The Mural Arts Park is also under construction on the same block as Starling and seeks to create a new cultural hub in North Lawndale.
Duo can’t claim direct causation, but Robles-Shanahan believes Starling showed the neighborhood is worthy of investment.
It took almost three years to raise funds, but Starling was built in four and a half months. The bottleneck “was the current practices in funding and underwriting,” Robles-Shanahan said.
Duo hopes Starling “serves as a showcase of what can be possible if we redesign how we deploy funds for projects like this across the city.”