"Connected Communities" re-legalizes six-unit houses on standard size lots

Here’s something that may help densify some neighborhoods: the Connected Communities ordinance that was adopted (and made effective the same day) on July 20, 2022, made six-unit houses on standard size lots — in TOD areas — allowable again.

I’ll break it down, but first let’s look at a couple of six-unit houses on standard size lots in residential zoning districts. The two six-unit houses below could not be rebuilt today in the majority of residentially-zoned standard size lots in Chicago.

The reason six-unit houses on standard size lots — meaning 25' wide by 125' deep for an area of 3,125 s.f. — are not allowable in residential zoning districts is because of the requirement that there must be one car parking space per dwelling unit, and the impossibility of packing six car parking spaces onto the lot.

Enter the Connected Communities ordinance (CCO) and its expansion of the reduced parking requirements provision to RM zoning districts. The CCO is a major modification of the nine-year-old “Transit Served Location” ordinance, which encourages more transit-oriented development near CTA and Metra stations, and higher-frequency CTA and Pace bus routes.

Previously, reduced parking requirements — allowing property owners to provide as little as zero car parking spaces for residential projects — applied only in B, C, and D zoning districts. (D zoning districts allow mixed-use development in the downtown area, and B and C zoning zoning districts allow mixed-use development outside the downtown area.)

Reduced parking requirements are now available in RM-5, RM-5.5, RM-6, and RM-6.5 zoning districts. This means it’s possible to use the higher density housing allowance in those zoning districts to build up to six units on a standard size lot and between zero and three car parking spaces. (It may be practical to only fit two car parking spaces because the garbage bin needs space).

I’m calling this historical-and-legal-again building type the “Standard 6–3”, which has the following qualifications:

• Standard size lot
• up to 6 units allowed
• a 50 percent car parking spaces to dwelling units ratio required (in other words, one space per two units, but the property owner may request and obtain an administrative adjustment to allow as few as zero spaces)
• RM-5+ zoning district
• in a TOD area

Chicago Cityscape’s Property Finder knows where all of the lots that qualify for a “Standard 6-3” development are. There are nearly 10,000 lots across Chicago that meet the minimum area requirements, have the right zoning district, and are near enough to transit.

Read our Knowledge Base article about the Standard 6-3 to learn how to find them. The article is for Cityscape Real Estate Pro members only; we have a 7-day free trial available.

Amongst properties that are available through the ChiBlockBuilder program, there are about 20 qualifying lots currently for sale and over 500 lots that are not currently for sale.

Hold on, there’s more. A “Standard 8-3” is also allowed.

Instead of 6 units, 8 units are allowed, and still zero to 3 car parking spaces can be built. This one is a bit more complicated, however, because it would require two administrative adjustments: the first one for the car parking reduction from the 4 required to a smaller number, and the second for allowing 8 units to be built on a lot smaller than 3,200 s.f. If a property owner needed a third administrative adjustment for something else, then all of those would have to be requested as variations to be granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals — a more costly and time-consuming endeavor.

“Connected Communities” re-legalizes six-unit houses on standard size lots was originally published in Chicago Cityscape’s Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.