Chicago appears to be in the home stretch for citywide ADU expansion

The Chicago zoning committee may vote to approve a proposed ordinance that would allow accessory dwelling units, ADUs, in all of the city — this would close out the pilot areas. Alderperson Bennett Lawson has introduced SO2024–0008918 and may call it for a vote at the committee’s July 16, 2024, meeting. If approved there it could be voted on by City Council on July 17.

Changes between the current zoning code and the proposal include:

• Eliminating pilot areas and the additional restrictions in the West, South, and Southwest pilot areas.
• Allowing ADUs in B1, B2, B3, C1, and C2 zoning districts when the building is 100 percent residential. This is important because there are thousands of residential-only properties that are incorrectly zoned in B and C districts which don’t allow ADUs.
• Allowing a property to have both a conversion unit (interior apartment) and a coach house. The existing calculation for the number of allowed conversion units would remain, and coach houses would still be allowed to have one unit.
• Eliminating the hard 700 s.f. cap on coach house floor area. The 60 percent rule on maximum floor area would remain, however. This improves the situation for owners of lots wider than 25 feet, though.
• The proposed ordinance would allow property owners who want to build a coach house to ask the zoning administrator to waive parking requirements for the principal building. This would allow a property owner to reduce the number of existing parking spaces, allowing a coach house to be built as an accessible unit on the ground level. Ground-level coach houses will also be cheaper to construct!
• In RS-1 and RS-2 zoning districts, homeowners would have to obtain a special use from the Zoning Board of Appeals. Currently, ADUs are not allowed in RS-1 districts at all, but they are allowed as of right in RS-2 zoning districts (provided the property is also in a pilot area).
• Eliminating the need for the property owner to notify their two adjacent neighbors. (The property owner or the city would have to notify the ward office, though.)
• Affordability requirements for every second interior ADU would remain as-is.

The Chicago Department of Housing invited me to give a prepared remark about ADUs to the zoning committee’s subject matter hearing on June 11; read that remark. I would prefer that the option to build an ADU is available in all residential zoning districts, without the special use requirement.

Take action

There are a few options to make your voice heard.

• Sign the Urban Environmentalists Illinois petition to show your support for allowing ADUs citywide.
• Send your alderperson a personal message from your email, or use the Chicago New Liberals letter-sending form.
• Come to the meetings on June 25 (zoning committee) and July 17 (City Council). Each meeting starts at 10 AM at City Hall in Council Chambers and the public comment period will be the first thing; you can leave after you say your two-minute comment. When you arrive, fill out a witness slip and indicate on the slip that you are supporting “SO2024–0008918” or “ADUs”. (Don’t bring a backpack, snacks, or drinks.)

Chicago appears to be in the home stretch for citywide ADU expansion was originally published in Chicago Cityscape’s Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.