Mayor Brandon Johnson pushes ‘granny flat' ordinance forward

Chicago Tribune

08-07-2025

Mayor Brandon Johnson is charging ahead with an effort to make the construction of 'granny flats' legal and straightforward in all Chicago neighborhoods.
Johnson said he plans to revive his bid to clear the way for garden apartments, attic-to-housing conversions and coach houses. In doing so, he also revives a daunting political fight.
A similar Johnson-backed proposal fizzled out last summer when aldermen from wards filled with single-family homes objected to the potential influx of so-called additional dwelling units.
The mayor argued Tuesday new construction is needed amid a housing affordability crisis.
'We need more units, that's the way we are going to drive the pricing for housing down,' Johnson said at a City Hall news conference. 'It's about creating safe, affordable communities.'
The City Council Zoning Committee could vote on the proposal next week, and send it to the full council July 16.
Changes in zoning and parking requirements caused the construction of additional dwelling units to be banned in Chicago in 1957. Still, many Chicago buildings already include such units, some illegal, some grandfathered in and some constructed during an ongoing pilot program.
Like in his last effort, Johnson's ordinance would allow the additional units to be built, by right, citywide, with no ability for aldermen to stop them on a ward-by-ward basis. But the new ordinance makes a compromise: Only one or two new units could be built each year on each block in areas zoned for detached, single-family homes.
The added limits won tentative support from Zoning Committee Vice Chair Ald. Bennett Lawson, 44th. Allowing by-right additional unit construction is a crucial way to cut tape on development and make housing construction more affordable, he said.
'I'm thinking that this is probably where we are going to land, and it is more of a compromise from where we were last year,' Lawson said. 'I don't see this changing any block in the city radically, very quickly.'
Lawson said some details are still being hammered out and added that he believes opponents of the change could delay a final vote if one comes up next week, potentially stalling debate until September.
The measure's chief opponent last summer, Ald. Marty Quinn, signaled he would once again vie to block it. The ordinance threatens to 'erode the fabric of these beautiful neighborhoods,' the Southwest Side bungalow belt alderman said.
Quinn, 13th, cited parking, garbage, noise and school overcrowding as top concerns he hears about from constituents — each an issue that would worsen if Johnson successfully 'jams ADU's down the throats of aldermen,' he said.
'Those quality of life issues will be accelerated if this is allowed to happen,' Quinn said. 'For the mayor to think he knows best about what the needs are on the Southwest Side, it's not accurate.'
He added that the new per-block limits made the proposal more tolerable, but pointed out that Johnson's proposal would not require homeowners to live in buildings where additional units are built.
'That means investors from New York could come in, buy a single-family home and turn that single-family home into an apartment overnight,' Quinn said. 'This proposal is riddled with blindspots, and I'm trying to sound the alarm as loud as possible.'
Johnson, however, argued that the ordinance's citywide reach is 'critical' to affordability. The mayor sidestepped when asked if his sudden push signaled he had the necessary majority support to pass the ordinance after failing to get such backing last year.
'We will have ongoing conversations with alders. I always go into any battle with confidence we will prevail. That's how I got here,' he said.
But some aldermen say they were caught off guard by Johnson's move. Ald. Matt O'Shea said he still has not seen the actual legislation, despite the administration's calls for a Zoning Committee vote next week.
'I've had no communication discussion on this in months, several months, and then all of a sudden, Sunday, I start hearing from colleagues that the administration wants to hurry up, pass this through,' he said. 'So they are not communicating with anybody, but they want to hurry up to do this. Come on. Put some thought into this.'
O'Shea was unmoved by Johnson's argument that Chicago's need for more housing is desperate enough for community input to be skipped when additional units are being weighed. The mayor should instead focus on reducing construction costs, he said.
'Community should have a say. Elected officials in neighborhoods should have a say. Period. End of story,' O'Shea said. 'Not just blanket change zoning because after two years somebody realized we have a housing shortage.'
Johnson said he hopes aldermen do not become 'narrow or blinded by their own sort of specific space.'
'Building more affordable units is not an attack,' he said. 'It's actually a response to an attack against working people in this city, who work very hard to build family and build a community here. I want to make sure those working people stay here.'