Four Chicago neighborhoods offer their views on how Chicago's new zoning ordinance can improve their communities.
The Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) offers this document, Zoning Recommendations from Chicago Neighborhoods, to aid the Mayor's Zoning Reform Commission and the City Council in making changes to Chicago's current zoning ordinance. It reflects concerns of residents regarding development and zoning in four diverse neighborhoods, and offers a menu of zoning solutions to address these concerns.
In summer 2001, as part of its zoning initiative, Shaping Communities Through Urban Design, MPC began working closely with four communities to gain input on how the existing zoning code affected quality of life in their neighborhoods. These communities were selected based on their demographic characteristics, level of local development activity and geographic location.
Using the expertise of a volunteer Zoning Working Group composed of development professionals, MPC conducted a series of neighborhood focus groups to identify residents' concerns about zoning. Of the many concerns that were raised, six issues figured prominently in all four communities. MPC's working group and consultants studied those issues and offered possible zoning solutions.
We present here the most feasible and acceptable ones, as evaluated both by neighborhood stakeholders and MPC staff and volunteers. These issues and solutions are not prioritized and are meant to serve as a menu of possible ways to address the concerns raised by focus group participants. We believe that these recommendations offer a spectrum of zoning approaches that, if adopted into the new code, could help Chicago build healthy, livable and vibrant communities.
Zoning for a Better Chicago: MPC Zoning Reform Recommendations, a companion piece to this document, identifies zoning solutions that MPC believes should be priorities for inclusion in the new zoning ordinance.
Download sections of Zoning Recommendations from Chicago Neighborhoods in PDF format:
Text: Table of Contents, Executive Summary, Neighborhood Zoning Recommendations
Appendices A-C: Methodology
Appendices D-F: Neighborhood Zoning and Planning Issues
Appendices G-L: Sample Ordinance Language