10 new features: Properties for sale, Express permits, recordings AND more

Chicago Cityscape presents the ten new features added in the first quarter of 2024. New in this edition of the quarterly updates is a peak into our workplan, which is based on requests from our members.

Permits

• Express permits. Last fall, the Chicago Department of Buildings switched to the express permits system that replaced easy permits and other permit types. Only a handful of late easy permits were issued in 2024; please use express permits filters to find small projects.
• Pending permits. Find light details about building permit applications before they’re issued.
• ADU statistics in Chicago by state senator and state representative. Now that accessory dwelling units are a topic being discussed by state legislators in Springfield, we wanted to show the progress of permitting in Chicago-based legislators’ districts.

Properties

• Properties for sale. This has been a request for many years and we’re excited to offer 2-4 flats, detached houses, land, and some commercial properties in Property Finder. We also have a system to show commercial and multifamily properties that are not provided by our source but are submitted by our members (if you’re selling a property that’s not in our database, please send us the details).
• Recordings are documents recorded on a PIN by the Clerk of Cook County and include mortgages, deeds, and affidavits. The frequency at which our system check for new recordings is determined in part by our members visiting or subscribing to PIN-based Property Reports; the more a PIN-based property report is visited or subscribed to the more often our system will check for new recordings. This is also a filter in Property Finder, and the list of recordings (with a link to the PDF) is in PIN-based Property Reports.
• The Cook County Treasurer conducted the annual tax sale in January 2024 for properties with delinquent taxes in 2021. Chicago Cityscape has the results in Property Finder.
• The 2023 parcel boundaries were added in January. This includes all of the parcel combinations and divisions that were done in 2023. The Clerk of Cook County publishes this map annually.

Chicago zoning

• Zoning assessment, zoning assessment’s “appendix”, and the historical maps locator are now separate sections for easier navigation within Property Reports. Use the table of contents to quickly jump to these sections. Historical maps locator points users to Sanborn fire insurance, 80 Acres, and Sidwell tax maps hosted by the City of Chicago.
• Small box retailers was added as a zoning use. Small box retailers largely comprises dollar store chains; developers of small box retailers are subject to new siting and separation distance criteria.
• Low Affordability Communities outside of downtown are now an incentive filter. This is not actually a zoning geography, but is related to site selection as building on-site affordable housing in an LAC grants the property owner a reduction in assessed value (see also: AHSAP). Chicago City Council members are now establishing LACs prior to receiving requests from individual property owners so that the LAC becomes an incentive to build housing in the geography.

Workplan

Here are the two requests for new data that we’re working on integrating in the second quarter:

• transportation (driveway) and dig permits
• property tax appeals

You can request a feature or improvement at any time by using the contact us form; we will ask you to describe how you would use the feature or improvement in your work. All requests are noted and similar requests that come from multiple members get prioritized in the workplace.

Major permit changes ＋property recordings for 2024 Q1 was originally published in Chicago Cityscape’s Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.