We've long included public and non-public schools in Chicago in our Amenities & Social Infrastructure map. Today we're launching our statewide map of schools while also expanding the categories of schools included. 

Our new data source is the Illinois State Board of Education's directory of registered schools. These are schools that provide a compulsory elementary or secondary education in one or more grade levels. One caveat is that not all schools that provide this education are required to register. 

That's 5,626 schools – including public, non-public (parochial and other faith-based), special education (both public and non-public), charter, and other schools (like IMSA). 

How Cityscape uses schools

In Chicago, this helps with our Cannabis Compliance feature, as local zoning rules require a distance of 500 feet between schools and cannabis businesses. Other jurisdictions may have similar rules. 

Everywhere in Illinois this helps property developers, LIHTC applicants, and real estate brokers locate the nearest schools in their Address Snapshot lookups.

Chicago Cityscape's venerable Property Finder tool now works for citywide searches. Elevate a search to include properties beyond the smaller areas that previously limited our members – to the entire 234 square miles of Chicago. 

There are over 900,000 properties across Chicago. The same Property Finder filters you're used to at the community area, ward, ZIP code, or Personal Place level, work citywide. 

Create simple or complex groups of filters to locate the exact kinds of properties you want to prospect. For example, we found 2,275 parking lots that are (a) larger than 7,000 s.f., (b) in a TOD area and zoning district that allows zero car parking spaces for residential use, and (c) has a supermarket within one mile.

Oh - that "supermarket within one mile" is another new feature 😎

This feature is in beta and please be patient. It takes computers a lot of work to apply your filters to over 900,000 properties. Send us your feedback!

Finding property citywide starts with these two steps

1. Open the Chicago (municipality) Place Snapshot, or select the "Research" menu button and select the "Property Finder - Chicago citywide" option.
2. Select the "Property Finder" button below the map. After a moment, a datatable and filters will appear. The first 10 properties, ordered by PIN, will show in the datatable, and in the map.

With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, new and existing national tax credits will encourage the adoption of more energy efficient building systems and constructing renewable energy facilities. The standard investment tax credit for a new qualifying solar or wind energy is six percent while the bonus tax credit for investing in low-income communities is worth 10 additional percentage points.

There is even an option, in the same areas, to gain an additional 10 points if constructing the facility on a qualifying rental residential building or if it will benefit low-income households. 

Chicago Cityscape has added this geographically-based "IRA solar & wind bonus credit" to Incentives Checker. Search for it within Incentives Checker using the keywords IRA, solar, wind, or energy.

Look up an address in Illinois to see if it might qualify for the energy credit boost.

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The new TOD ordinance in 2022 — summarized City Council adopted a new TOD ordinance, called “Connected Communities” on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. This is also the third and largest revision of the TOD density bonus and parking reduction rules originally adopted in 2013. 

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The ARO Matrix is designed to help decode the rules for Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO) in Chicago. We know that the rules can be confusing, especially because there is a different ruleset for each of the five ARO areas, and we want to help make the process of calculating how much affordable housing is required as straightforward as possible.

Access the ARO Matrix directly (this is for Cityscape Real Estate Pro members only), or after looking up an address in Chicago and opening its Zoning Assessment. The 45-second video below walks through how to get there. 

Chicago City Council adopted a new ward map on May 16, 2022. The new map will be effective for the 2023 city council election. Find out which ward you'll be shifted to using Address Snapshot's Surrounding Places feature. 

Look up your address now in Chicago Cityscape to see your current and future wards. 

The 30-second video below demonstrates looking up an address and using the table of contents to jump down to Surrounding Places.