Lake County + Lake County + other new features

Chicago Cityscape expands beyond Cook County for the first time in our history in 2024 Q4

We added property data for two additional counties in Chicagoland in November and December, respectively:

• Lake County, Indiana (we wrote a blog post explaining why we chose to expand to Lake County, Indiana — hint: it’s the trains)
• Lake County, Illinois (this has been the county most requested by our members, and it also has several Metra lines)

Property Finder for these counties is more limited than what our members are used to for Cook County properties (see the infographic below). Filter for properties by property classification, zoning district, and proximity to CTA, Metra, and South Shore Line stations.

If you’re a member, read other quarterly updates to see what’s new and updated in all of 2024. Members can request a refresh training once a year; contact us to schedule that. Plus, we’re also asking members for their suggestions on which counties we should add next (via this survey).

Keep reading to learn about other new and updated features.

Commercial valuation data for Cook County

Thanks to the transparency of Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi we’ve added information about the commercial valuation characteristics of over 32,000 properties in Cook County. This feature is in beta and adds one filter and updates an existing filter in Property Finder.

• New filter: Show only those properties that have commercial valuation data. This feature also identifies properties that are assessed collectively so you can look at other properties that are associated (prorated) with a given property.
• Updated filter: Previously you could only filter for number of units between 1 and 6, or “7 or more”. Now you can choose one of our predefined groups to find properties large and small.

Zoning in Chicago

• Alderpersons of the 46th, 47th, and 48th Wards are proposing proactive upzoning of Broadway, from Montrose Ave to Devon Ave, to B3-5 and C1-5, allowing a lot more housing as-of-right. You can identify these properties by accessing this custom Place Report and selecting the “Show zoning & units allowed” button in Property Finder. (Read the relevant Knowledge Base article.)
• The commercial valuation data mentioned above also gave us the necessary information to determine the unused zoning capacity status for more kinds of properties in Chicago. Previously this the “UZC” filter was available only for residential properties with 1-6 homes and now our system can identify UZC for nearly 20,000 properties, of many kinds, in mixed-use zoning districts. (Knowledge Base article.)

Minor updates

• Picks was updated to add three more factors: the property has unused zoning capacity for either additional homes or more floor area; a grocery store is nearby; and the property is on a part of Broadway through Uptown and Edgewater that is slated to be upzoned (read previous section, Zoning in Chicago, to learn about this).
• Public sector investments for Chicago-based places has been moved from the former Lending & Investment Snapshot to the Place Report. Lending & Investment Snapshot has been renamed to Demographics Snapshot and the business lending and residential mortgages data has been removed permanently.
• Searching by PIN has been sped up dramatically and accepts PINs (in any format, with or without dashes) in all three counties.
• Earlier in 2024, the Chicago Department of Buildings added “permit milestone” information to the building permits. Some of the possible statuses include whether a permit is ready for inspections and has passed inspections. These milestones are now shown on each permit details page and are available as a filter in the Building Permits Browser. (Read the Knowledge Base article.)
• Building permit statistics, one of our analytics pages, now shows the number of new construction dwelling units permitted each year by Chicago ward.

Properties for sale and past sales data

• Listing agent contact info is now part of Property Finder when any “for sale” checkbox is checked and when contact information is provided by our source.
• Condos for sale was added to Property Finder. We are trying our best to detect and hide deeded parking spaces, as our data source inaccurately classifies these as condos or land.
• Property sales chart has been moved to the Property Sales section of Place Report (for Cook County-based places). The chart has been improved to have arms length transaction data, extended to 21 quarters (to show five years of transactions), and the chart gained the ability to add multiple comparison places.

Updated data

Note that 2024 Q4 property sales data for Cook County will be published in mid-January.

• Chicago zoning map (three updates this quarter). The latest version shows changes made through December 16, 2024.
• Addition of sorting, shipping, and e-commerce distribution centers in Indiana (learn how to locate TDL facilities in our platform)
• Various cannabis business establishments (proposed and existing)
• 2024 historical aerial imagery for Property Reports in Cook County (learn how to use this).

New and updated Knowledge Base articles

• Zoning Map Explorer
• Low Affordability Community
• Private notes for members to store information about a property that other Chicago Cityscape members cannot see.
• Transportation Demand Management (TDM)
• Property Report overview

Lake County + Lake County + other new features was originally published in Chicago Cityscape’s Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.