The “RS-3” zoning classification only allows large, single-family houses to be built and its prevalence impacts the availability and production of housing and of affordable housing, not to mention limit who and how many people have access to good transit and schools.
Fully 70.2 percent of the 35th Ward (map) already doesn’t allow the construction of apartments or multi-family condo buildings because it is zoned as RS-3 and RS-2 (which requires single-family houses to be built on larger lots than RS-3 requires). The 35th Ward includes portions of Hermosa, Avondale, Albany Park, Logan Square, and Irving Park community areas.
Citywide, 40.8 percent of the area requires single-family housing to be built.
Already there are hundreds, if not thousands, of apartments and condos that exist in RS-3-zoned districts, so it’s not the case that 70 percent of the current housing in the 35th Ward is single-family. These are legal but nonconforming uses.
It means that a vast majority of the ward doesn’t allow any new multi-family buildings, despite that a block may already be majority two-flats (or bigger). To build something in one of these areas, you would need to get a costly zoning change.
Less than four percent of the 35th Ward is zoned RT-4, which is the most common multi-family zoning classification in Chicago and allows residential-only buildings with 2–4 units. Furthermore, 14.2 percent is zoned for various other multi-family buildings, some allowing businesses on the ground floor and the same density as RT-4 above (the largest of these is B3-1, at 5.7 percent), while others allow slightly larger apartment buildings (collectively, less than 0.5 percent).
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