‘Cut the Tape’ Report Takes Aim at Inefficiencies

A set of recommendations from the Chicago mayor’s office calls for streamlining city processes to stimulate more residential and commercial development.

1 minute read

April 12, 2024, 6:00 AM PDT

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


Aerial view of Chicago with river in foreground.

Felix Mizioznikov / Adobe Stock

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.”

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