A set of recommendations from the Chicago mayor’s office calls for streamlining city processes to stimulate more residential and commercial development.

A report from the Chicago Mayor’s office outlines more than one hundred recommendations to streamline the development process in the city that include eliminating parking requirements and removing barriers to development.
Dubbed Cut the Tape, the report aims to make development faster and more affordable, reports Melody Mercado in Block Club Chicago. “The report highlights three priorities: build faster, build everywhere and build together. This encompasses speeding up development timelines, allowing more housing and businesses to be developed in more places and partnering with a variety of stakeholders to make that happen.”
Among the top 10 recommendations:
- Adopt “transformational” zoning changes that would eliminate minimum parking requirements, streamline special use permits and more.
- Streamline design and construction requirements.
- Reduce the number of design review meetings within the Department of Planning and Development from three to one, and reassess the role of the Committee on Design.
The report also focuses on upgrading and modernizing technology in city departments and digitizing processes to make information more centralized. For the Department of Buildings, “The city has already created an online permit application system and is working on creating a permitting and licensing portal.”
FULL STORY: Mayor Plans To Boost Housing, Business Development By Cutting Red Tape

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

Half of Post-Fire Altadena Home Sales Were to Corporations
Large investors are quietly buying up dozens of properties in Altadena, California, where a devastating wildfire destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January.

Opinion: What San Francisco’s Proposed ‘Family Zoning’ Could Really Mean
Mayor Lurie is using ‘family zoning’ to encourage denser development and upzoning — but could the concept actually foster community and more human-scale public spaces?

Jacksonville Launches First Autonomous Transit Shuttle in US
A fleet of 14 fully autonomous vehicles will serve a 3.5-mile downtown Jacksonville route with 12 stops.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Gallatin County Department of Planning & Community Development
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont