Recognizing a housing shortage across Illinois, state legislators have introduced several bills in the General Assembly in their 2025 session to permit more homes to be built, including in municipalities that severely limit residential development by regulatory means. “If we are going to build o...

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Chicago Cityscape expands beyond Cook County for the first time in our history in 2024 Q4 We added property data for two additional counties in Chicagoland in November and December, respectively: Lake County, Indiana (we wrote a blog post explaining why we chose to expand to Lake County, Indiana...

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Chicago Cityscape members know that we have the only map and details of proposed zoning changes, updated each month . This month we’re doing something a little extra and previewing municipal code amendments that are related to zoning, land use, and transportation. Would any of these proposed ord...

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What property will you find in Lake County, Indiana? For the first time in our 10-year history, Chicago Cityscape has parcel and zoning data for an area outside of Cook County. We selected Lake County, Indiana — home to Dyer, Munster, Gary, Hammond, and Whiting— as our first expansion step. Star...

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Larger lots, to be sold at market rate, have a later deadline The next round of city-owned vacant lots for sale ends this week, on Friday, November 15. The following round ends on January 3. Use Chicago Cityscape to find the best lots to apply for. The Nov. 15th round includes 331 properties ava...

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20 new and updated features in 2024 Q3 — our biggest this year We’re always rolling out new features for our members. For 2024 Q3 we’re rolling out twenty new and updated features, including one that was suggested by a member. On deck for next quarter are several additional member-requested featu...

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Chicago Cityscape has updated its map of the area formerly known as the Predominance of the Block (606) District in Logan Square. The “Northwest Preservation Ordinance” expanded the district and updated the zoning standards and demolition surcharge, which I’ve summarized below. The ordinance wen...

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A couple weeks after every quarter ends Chicago Cityscape adds the latest property sales data (which are filed with the Illinois Department of Revenue). Last week we added 2024 Q2 data, and this week we added four new analytics based on the data which will also be updated every quarter. Open Pro...

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Chicago’s elected school board districts are now on Chicago Cityscape Last year the Illinois General Assembly adopted a bill (SB 15 ) that transitions Chicago Public Schools to have an entirely elected school board. On election day, November 5, 2024, Chicagoans will get to vote for 10 school boar...

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The big news is that our new site selection feature, Picks, is live. Every night Picks analyzes over 500,000 properties in Chicago and looks for characteristics that make one property more ideal for mixed-use development than most other properties. The exclusive Picks system checks for proximity ...

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