Picks: properties with good development characteristics + 8 more Q2 changes

The big news is that our new site selection feature, Picks, is live. Every night Picks analyzes over 500,000 properties in Chicago and looks for characteristics that make one property more ideal for mixed-use development than most other properties. The exclusive Picks system checks for proximity to CTA stations, zoning capacity compared to the current use, and whether it’s for sale, amongst other factors.

Picks are shown on the homepage — where members can see three of the top 100 scoring properties — and in Property Finder filters. Learn more about how to use Picks.

Help us grow

Chicago Cityscape relies heavily on word of mouth to gain new members and create new features, so we’ve launched a referral program for members. Currently, earn 10 percent of a new customer’s membership for up to three months. Sign up here to get your referral link.

Revamped help center

In the second half of June, Chicago Cityscape launched a completely redesigned Knowledge Base. Access it by selecting the light-blue “Help” button in the lower-right corner of every webpage. The knowledge base is organized by topic, guides new members to learn the platform, and enables faster and deeper searching than the previous knowledge base.

The biggest change is that the help center has full-text and smart searching. Try searching for 100s of keywords related to Chicago land use policy, zoning, transit, site selection, and historic property information.

There are also many new and updated knowledge base articles:

• Low Affordability Community (for Chicago residential developers)
• Pending Permits
• PIN Mapper
• Property data notes
• Sharing & gifting reports
• Troubleshooting
• Third-party maps
• What are PINs?

Property Finder filters

• The appeals filter was updated to add an additional year of data (we now have 2022 through today), and added additional filtering options so it’s easier to find which properties had their assessed values appealed.
• Sift through more of the over 39 million recordings (including deeds); the “look back” filter has been increased to up to two years.

Transit and zoning

The Peterson/Ridge Metra station opened in June. This affects Property Finder searches for properties near transit service or within a transit-served location, and it affects a Property Report’s TOD status.

Also on the North Side, the alderpersons for the 40th, 47th, and 49th Wards proposed a multi-block upzoning of the properties facing Western Avenue between Addison and Howard Streets. This would triple the number of homes allowed by drastically increasing the number of properties eligible to add medium density housing. Read about this in Streetsblog Chicago.

This proactive zoning, and future housing calculation, will be shown if you look at any one of the three wards’ Place Reports. City Council could adopt these changes in either July or September, after which the zoning map will be officially modified.

Data & other updates

• As we announced earlier this year, amenities are now updated on a monthly basis and were updated in June. This information feeds into the Amenities & social infrastructure of Property Reports in Cook County and helps members identify nearby grocer stores, banks, restaurants, medical services, and other essentials.
• PIN Mapper, based on a member’s request, can now return additional data about the list of PINs that members submit. Tick the appropriate checkbox to return sales data, residential building & condo characteristics, and exemptions information.
• The historical maps locators in Property Reports for Chicago locations was moved to its own section below the Zoning Assessment to be more prominent and easy to find. The historical maps locators help members access 80 Acres, Sanborn fire insurance, and tax maps hosted by the City of Chicago.

Picks: properties with good development characteristics + 8 more Q2 changes was originally published in Chicago Cityscape’s Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.