The state tried to tell your alderman what to build — now the alderman’s pushing back, and Humboldt Park is stuck in the middle. It’s Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily — and we’ve got a full-on municipal turf war over who gets to hold the zoning pen, plus a real affordable housing project actually moving in Humboldt Park. City Hall against Springfield, suburbs trying to opt out of everything — we’ll sort out who’s actually protecting neighborhoods and who’s just protecting property values. Stick around. One of these stories is about power, and the other one is about people actually getting housed. Here's Chicago Tribune:
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Pushing back against Gov. JB Pritzker’s most ambitious legislative initiative of the year, an organization representing Illinois cities and towns had competing housing legislation introduced Thursday — a bill that claims to share the governor’s goals of expanding housing supply but strips out the mandates that have alarmed local leaders across the state.
Tribune’s got the Illinois Municipal League throwing a counterpunch at Pritzker’s middle housing bill. Their version trades mandates for voluntary incentives, which is just local control gift-wrapped for every suburb that didn’t want to build a duplex anyway. Voluntary. Right. Because that’s been going great for transit equity and school funding. ‘Here’s some state money if you feel like letting a two-flat exist’ is not a housing plan — it’s a permission slip to do nothing. To be fair, Pritzker’s not running this crusade purely on principle. The man’s got a 2028 primary to think about, and ‘I zoned Illinois for the people’ practically writes itself. Fine, he’s got a motive. The mandate still builds more housing than a voluntary program run by the same municipal league that’s been blocking density for thirty years. From Option Premier:
A long-vacant lot in Humboldt Park could soon become a new affordable housing development after receiving a major approval from Chicago’s zoning committee. The proposal, located at 3251 W. Division Street, calls for a six-story building with 44 below-market-rate apartments developed by Hispanic Housing Development Corporation.
Hispanic Housing Development Corporation cleared the zoning committee this week for a 44-unit all-affordable building on Division Street in Humboldt Park — six stories, $36 million, and now it’s headed to full City Council for the final vote. A long-vacant lot turning into 44 below-market units — and seven of them are three-bedrooms, so we’re talking about actual families here — that’s not nothing. That’s the kind of project that keeps a neighborhood from tipping. Hispanic Housing’s been doing this work in that corridor for years, so this isn’t some out-of-town developer parachuting in. The real question is whether City Council rubber-stamps it or somebody decides to slow-walk it. If Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily helps you make sense of the city, consider subscribing wherever you’re listening. And if you can leave a quick review, it helps other Chicago-minded listeners find the show.
You’ll find links to everything we talked about today in the show notes. If a story stuck with you, that’s the best place to follow it a little further.
That’s Chicago Politics and Urbanism Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.