Chicago Cityscape modified Building Permits Browser again to make it easier to find examples of specific trends. In two clicks, find construction projects that can be categorized into one or more these topics:
Look for "Filter by tag or topic" in the filters section below the permits map and data table.
We manually categorize building permits into these and other categories, so they may be missing some projects. View Tags & Topics to see the full list of trends we track (not all of them can be filtered in Building Permits Browser; send us your feedback on what tags & topics you'd like to filter).
Chicago Cityscape has added a new Quick Filter to the Building Permits Browser to quickly find building permits issued to public agencies. BPB is used by trades unions, architects, and real estate brokers to find where projects have occurred, who designed what, and to learn about the history of a building.
The new Quick Filter is called "Civic projects", and we're currently beta testing it. Try it now!
The "Civic projects" Quick Filter activates with a single click and pulls up building permits since 2006 that were issued to the Chicago Park District, Chicago Transit Authority, the Public Building Commission, and Chicago Public Schools. While their building permits comprise less than 0.5 percent, multiple are issued every month.
We know that it's helpful to track these public agency projects because they are important developments in Chicago. While this is in beta testing, please send us any feedback.
Notes about the data: The BPB may not show 100 percent of the building permits issued to those three agencies since 2006 because the names used on the permits may be different from time to time. For example, sometimes the agency's name is used, and it's very easy to filter for their permits, but sometimes a project manager's name is used and we may not catch this until later.
Owners of vacant buildings in Chicago are required to register them on the Department of Building's Vacant Building Registry.
Owners must register within 30 days after the building becomes vacant (see 14X-12-1204 in the Chicago Municipal Code) and renew every six months while the building is vacant.
This data is now available in Property Finder within Place Reports in Chicago Cityscape, and there are 1,507 properties citywide. You'll find the filter option in a new section called "Vacancy".
Each property in the data table links to the registration's listing on the Vacant Building Registry where there may be more information about the property. For properties that had been inspected by the Department of Buildings, there may be photos.
We are showing a subset of the VBR data: registered properties that are currently registered or have expired within the last three months and that are either non-residential buildings or are residential buildings and real estate owned. ("REO" is a term that generally means owned by a lender or bank, a receiver, or some other entity that is in charge of the property after the previous owner left due to an atypical situation, like foreclosure.)
This data has to be imported manually, which is a resource-intensive effort; the update frequency will be based on usage and feedback we get from our members.
This zoning code brief is useful for architects, their developer clients, permit expeditors, and zoning attorneys.
The Chicago City Council adopted minor changes to the zoning code in ordinance SO2022-3785 on January 18, 2023 (the S means a substitute ordinance, different from the original proposal, was passed).
The main changes were technical changes to the code, including eliminating text referring to code that was removed in July 2022, and adding some missing keywords that don't affect the standards.
The substantial change in the code is that the requirement for developments in transit-served locations (TSL, but we also call them TOD areas) to comply with "Pedestrian Street" standards has been relaxed for residential developments.
The requirement is that buildings subject to the standard had to have a minimum amount of transparency on the ground floor, but that doesn't work well for residential uses where there are dwelling units on the ground floor. The relevant standard is shown in the screenshot below.
This standard is not part of Chicago Cityscape's Zoning Assessment, so no changes to our platform have been made.
The technical change to the code is that any new construction in B, C, and D zoning districts must comply with the Pedestrian Street design standards in 17-3-0504 or 17-4-0504 (depending if the zoning district is B/C or D) except subsection (C), which is the standard displayed above.
In this Lunch Break Update, presented on January 25, 2023, we demonstrated four features: the "Standard 6-3", Super Parcel (analyzing multiple parcels as if they were one), new Property Finder filters, and Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) decisions.
First in the video, we discussed how to find information about the Connected Communities revision to the city's longtime transit-oriented development ordinance. The entire video is about 35 minutes long, but is divided into several chapters.
Use these timecodes to skip ahead to each chapter:
Chicago Cityscape incorporated the final quarter of real estate transfers in 2022 in Cook County, bringing the total number of transfers in our database to 1,024,847. This covers a period of nine years, from 2014 to 2022.
Here's how to access the property sales data:
We've made it easier to find new Chicago ward maps and still view the old maps.
Two ways to search for a ward:
There will be two items in the search results table, each clearly labeled with the version of map the result links to:
The 2022 map will always be listed first.
Note that we don't have a position on which one is effective at the Chicago departments. You may need to schedule a required public meeting in a venue that's in both the new and old ward boundaries (although this is impossible in the new 34th Ward, which has no overlap with its old boundary).
After the inauguration in May 2023, Chicago Cityscape will make the 2022 map the default map and we will convert everyone's email notifications for wards to the new map. If you want to do that now, you can unsubscribe from the old ward and subscribe to the new ward (or email us to ask for assistance).
P.S. You can also look up an address to find which police district it's in. Each of the 22 Chicago police districts will have a council of three elected persons living in that district. Learn who's running in your police district by reading The Triibe's voter guide.
