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

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Study: Maui’s Plan to Convert Vacation Rentals to Long-Term Housing Could Cause Nearly $1 Billion Economic Loss
The plan would reduce visitor accommodation by 25% resulting in 1,900 jobs lost.

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

Waymo Gets Permission to Map SF’s Market Street
If allowed to operate on the traffic-restricted street, Waymo’s autonomous taxis would have a leg up over ride-hailing competitors — and counter the city’s efforts to grow bike and pedestrian on the thoroughfare.

Parklet Symposium Highlights the Success of Shared Spaces
Parklets got a boost during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the concept was translated to outdoor dining programs that offered restaurants a lifeline during the shutdown.

Federal Homelessness Agency Places Entire Staff on Leave
The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness is the only federal agency dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness.
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.
Caltrans
Smith Gee Studio
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service