What is our Agenda for elections

Housing

Housing Abundance as key to economic growth

No Chicagoan needs a bunch of statistics to show that housing costs and property taxes cost have maintained an unstoppable rise in recent years. Chicago needs better housing policies that promote the city’s economic growth and ensure that Chicagoans from across all of our 77 neighborhoods can find adequate and affordable housing. And by finding ways to attract new residents to Chicago, we can expand our tax base and lower property taxes for all Chicagoans.

Across the United States, overly burdensome and exclusionary housing policies have “shrunk America’s GDP by about 8.9% — or $1.9 trillion”, Link and this number has recently been considered an underestimate according to an economist’s recent studies. Link By revitalizing these policies, when can create faster economic growth, higher wages, a stronger tax base, and a more productive economy.

We should make the change to allow three-story, multi-family housing near all L stops. Housing near public transit stations is key to increasing housing affordability in Chicago. It will enable residents to bypass the cost of car ownership and reduce traffic on our streets, which is one of the most important aspects to consider when discussing new development policies.

We must also expand upon the Additional Dwelling Units (ADU) Ordinance that the City Council approved in December 2020. ADUs are a small but integral part of ensuring that there is a diversity of housing available to Chicago renters while also allowing Chicago homeowners to increase the value of their homes. I happily live in an ADU and think more Chicago residents should have the ability to do the same!

By making these long need changes to city policies, we can begin to unlock the economic growth needed to lower our property taxes and invest in our city services. These changes will also benefit putting the city of Chicago in great shape to reap some of the $6 billion in transportation funding the Biden administrations Link recently pledged to cities that enact inclusive housing policies. These funds will be pivotal to improving our city’s public transit and effectively combating our current traffic problems.

Preparing for the future of remote work

Covid abruptly changed our lives, some of those like masks were temporary, and some changes like remote work continue to look more permanent. While the future of work in Chicago will look neither like it did in April of 2019 nor April of 2020, we must have a city council that proactively plans for the future of work in Chicago. We know that firms will utilize remote work to some degree and are not going to need the office footprint as they have in years past. We must develop a strategy to convert office buildings throughout downtown into residential buildings. Helping building owners make this transition should be streamlined so Chicago can emerge as a leader in this space. We also need to pair these conversions with added retail and restaurants in these areas to ensure they are attractive to new residents and are allowed to flourish as unique neighborhood ecosystems throughout our city.

Ending Parking Requirements

Whenever significant developments apply for permits, the City Council typically enforces burdensome parking requirements, thus increasing the cost of the housing built while increasing traffic congestion and vehicle pollution. Chicago should eliminate these parking requirements and allow developments to determine how much parking their future residents will require. When parking spots are oversupplied in new developments, that lowers the cost of parking a car making it feasible for new residents to forgo our public transit system and bring in a new unneeded car to increase traffic in our communities. Link These needless parking spots also increase the housing cost, making it more challenging to incentivize new residents to the area. Studies found that when Buffalo, NY, ended their outdated parking requirements that “developers, in particular, “readily took advantage of the newfound possibility to include less off-street parking.” The 14 mixed-use projects tracked by the study provided 53 percent less parking than previously required — with four projects building no parking at all. Rather than build parking, developers shared parking.” Link

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Paid for by Botsford for Alderman. A copy of our report filed with the State Board of Elections is (or will be) available on the Board’s official website (www.elections.il.gov) or for purchase from the State Board of Elections, Springfield, Illinois.