Local developers and business owners got their zoning assessments from Chicago Cityscape via Elevated Works

Chicago Cityscape was part of a team of technical assistance providers called Elevated Works that for three years assisted small businesses and housing builders expand operations in transit-served areas of Chicago. I’m writing about it now because we wrapped up our final service for the team and Elevated Works winds down operations.

Elevated Works was a program led by five organizations (Center for Neighborhood Technology, IFF, Metropolitan Planning Council, Rudd Resources, and Elevated Chicago) funded by the City of Chicago to assist Chicago-based organizations in their development plans. The program was borne out of the Equitable Transit Oriented Development Policy Plan that City Council adopted in 2022.

Chicago Cityscape was a technical assistance provider for Elevated Works. Our primary service was crafting tailored zoning assessments for four clients who received an ETOD development grant, and providing follow-up support during the clients’ development process as needed.

A zoning assessment is a report that compares the details of a development plan to the standards of a zoning code. And then some. Chicago Cityscape’s zoning assessments typically comprise:

• a map of the property + a list of all PINs in the development and their respective lot areas
• listing the relevant Surrounding Places; this names the Chicago ward and other important boundaries, like Industrial Corridors and overlay districts
• whether the site is a transit-served location (which relieves car parking requirements), and what that means for the proposal
• the zoning district and a description of how that matches what the client is proposing; if there is a discrepancy or a conflict then the issue and solution are explained, including proposing which zoning district the site should be rezoned to

The zoning assessments we wrote covered the normal standards like setback requirements and allowed uses, but also described car and bike parking requirements. The reports also highlighted potential conflicts if the client wanted to add a new line of business or changed their proposed uses either during the building permit application process or after the permit got issued.

Even with our standard automated zoning assessment that all of members can access, sometimes it helps to have someone else review these standards and tailor the assessment to the project. Clients also benefit from discussing the project before beginning the assessment to understand if there are additional standards that need to be reviewed — often based on the myriad proposed uses in a development — and after to explain the findings of the assessment.

One of the main benefits of Elevated Works — from my perspective — was that as people and businesses applied for assistance from the Elevated Works coalition of technical assistance providers, staff at CNT and IFF interviewed the applicants and figured out which TA providers would be integral for that applicants’ proposed projects.

• Read the Elevated Works impact report

Tailored analysis and discussion is a service that we provide to many of our members, on a request basis, when our automated Zoning Assessment does not answer all of their questions.

Local developers and business owners got their zoning assessments from Chicago Cityscape via… was originally published in Chicago Cityscape’s Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.