Chicago eliminates parking requirements across most of the city

Chicago’s City Council adopted two major zoning reforms in Q3 of 2025, and Chicago Cityscape has been updated to advise members of the new rules. Then, keep reading to learn about the 11 other platform updates we’ve made in the last several months.

Reduced parking requirements

Adopted by City Council in July, parking mandates in transit-served areas were eliminated starting September 25, 2025. This change builds on policies implemented as part of the Connected Communities ordinance. Previously, parking mandates were cut in half and there was an administrative option to reduce a property owner’s requirement. In 74 percent of the city, that administrative option was converted to a by right option, effectively zeroing out the requirement to provide a minimum number of car parking spaces.

Parking requirements often drive up the cost of construction, create more parking spaces than are needed, add procedural delays to the building permit process, and make it more difficult to reuse buildings. An administrative adjustment is still required to provide less than 50 percent of the otherwise applicable parking standard if the development is in a Downtown zoning district or in a transit-served location only because of a Metra station.

Allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) more broadly

Also on September 25, 2025, City Council adopted an ordinance to make the Accessory Dwelling Units pilot program a permanent one. The first thing we did was update the ADU eligibility lookup tool to indicate a location’s eligibility now and in the future (the permanent rules start April 1, 2026).

Finding properties

“Picks” continues to be refined. A property will be elevated to “Pick” status if it’s in a proactively-upzoned area (this Knowledge Base article lists where those areas are); it has unused zoning capacity; it’s near a grocery store.

Other features to find properties in Cook County include:

• ChiBlockBuilder, for expirations next week on November 17, 2025, and next year on January 1, 2026. Open the map of all ChiBlockBuilder properties.
• Filter properties in Cook County based on their assessed values. Input a minimum or a maximum assessed value and Property Finder will show only the matching properties. This works in combination with all other filters.

Knowledge Base articles

Our Knowledge Base has over 400 tutorials and other articles that explain how to take full advantage of your membership and local government policies. Here’s a sampling of which ones were updated:

• Pedestrian Streets, a zoning designation in Chicago.
• Low Affordability Community, a way to save on property taxes.
• Parking reductions, reflecting changes in city and state laws.
• Chicago-owned property, to discuss the Missing Middle Infill Housing initiative.
• Converting ground floor commercial to residential, to explain all four methods of permitting homes on the ground floor outside of the zoning districts that already allow it.

Other

• Members: check out our new “Member checkup” article, that guides you into adding yourself to our member directory, scheduling refresher training, and more.
• Two new Place Report types: (1) ADU opt-in area for RS zoning districts, and (2) Illinois transit agency coverage area
• Cook County historical imagery for 2025 was added. This is high-quality aerial photography, taken from airplanes, that is updated annually. It’s a great way to compare change over time using raw photos (no street, business, or promotional labels). Learn how to activate this layer.
• A new Chicago zoning map shows edits made to the map through November 4, 2025.
• Zoning Board of Appeals decisions are now shown for Property Reports. This was previously only available for Place Reports. (See screenshot below.)

• Jackson Park Pilot Area (see map). This covers much of Jackson Park and Woodlawn, and new city policies apply. This will appear in the Incentives Checker because it comprises two grants: Property Tax Debt Relief Grant Pilot Program, and Chicago Rebuild Jackson Park Pilot. Learn more in the city’s press release from September 25.
• Broadway upzoning passed October 16, 2025. Until these are reflected in the official Chicago zoning map you will need to use the associated Property Finder filter (under the “Proactive upzoning” heading) to locate these properties.

Chicago eliminates parking requirements across most of the city was originally published in Chicago Cityscape’s Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.