Zoning around Chicago's public transit in relatively affluent areas won't allow for density or any kind of housing other than single family homes.
Chicago's Brown and Blue lines pass through a variety of neighborhoods, many of which are gentrifying and very attractive to young Chicagoans. So how much of the housing is zoned for apartments? Less than half. "City zoning code allows only single-family houses on 50.6 percent of the land within two blocks of Brown Line stations between Kimball and Southport," writes Steven Vance for Chicago Cityscape.
The strict zoning around these transit stops is not consistent with zoning around other stops on the city's North Side. "Areas in the North Side around the Blue and Brown Lines don’t have the same medium and high-density zoning districts as the areas around the Red Line. This situation leads to lower housing production of the 'missing middle' — housing that has more units than a single-family house, but wouldn’t be classified as a high-rise," Vance writes. This zoning is counterproductive for a city that is struggling to maintain its population.
FULL STORY: Too much land around CTA stations doesn’t allow more than single-family housing
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Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
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The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association