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Chicago Tribune
19-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Alicia Pederson: Chicago's affordable housing plan demands a courtyard block blueprint
Taking a bold step toward tackling Chicago's housing crisis, the City Council voted 30-18 to green-light the Residential Investment Corp., a city-backed nonprofit developer funded with $135 million from Mayor Brandon Johnson's Housing and Economic Development Bond. We love to see this push for 'Green Social Housing' that is affordable, mixed-income and eco-conscious. But if we do not plan for family-friendly density, we risk increasing the supply of small, yard-less housing that drives families to red states and suburbs. Let Residential Investment Corp. carve out a slice of the $135 million for preapproved courtyard block designs, inspired by the likes of Georges-Eugène Haussmann's Paris and James Hobrecht's Berlin, as a means of harmonizing the mayor's vision of housing with family-inclusive development. Let's face it: Chicago is losing children and thus jeopardizing its demographic sustainability and home-grown connection to the future. Cook County's under-5 population plunged 15% from 2020 to 2024. Chicago Public Schools has lost more than 100,000 students in the past 20 years, with more than 40,000 leaving in just the last five. Yes, housing affordability influences where parents choose to live and raise their children. However, other elements — such as school quality, outdoor access and neighborhood amenities — play crucial roles in these decisions. Every parcel is an opportunity to build amenity-rich blocks and neighborhoods, creating the high-value housing that will help Chicago retain the families it needs to flourish in the 21st century. Courtyard blocks are the epitome of pro-social housing, and the Residential Investment Corp. can use courtyard block designs to create mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhoods that appeal to households of all ages, stages and income levels. In the time-tested courtyard typology found throughout Europe, city blocks are framed with wall-to-wall, mixed-use buildings, going up three to six stories. The building floor plates are wide and shallow (rather than narrow and deep like the standard North American urban floor plate), leaving room in the block interior for a large, semi-private courtyard. Each building in the block has commercial space and garage stalls on the ground floor, very large units on the lower levels, and smaller, more affordable units on upper levels. While the gracious, dual-aspect layouts appeal to households of all ages and stages, the family-oriented units on the lower levels create the 'big house with a yard' that targets families with young children. Balancing density with green space, courtyard blocks are a simple and effective way of rapidly increasing the supply of affordable, family-inclusive housing in the cities. Additionally, courtyard blocks are the gold standard for green and cost-effective development. With shared walls and walk-up heights, the buildings save energy and construction costs. The interior courtyards manage storm water, tame heat islands and cut runoff. They offer a green alternative to our outdated alley system, which doubles the area of asphalted, car-related land in the city. Instead of a blazing back alley permeated with the stench of garbage and plagued by rats, residents find a lush and usable green space, cooled by the shade of tall perimeter buildings and by heat-absorbing vegetation. This courtyard amenity, along with access to a mixed-use, walkable neighborhood, pulls families from sprawling suburbs into the dense, resource-sharing city, reducing car dependency and further cutting carbon emissions. Here's how we make it happen: What about red-tape delays, the bane of timely and efficient development? Let city planners create a courtyard-block code. Traditional zoning codes regulate land use, separating residential, commercial and industrial functions, often leading to unpredictable design outcomes and lengthy approval processes. In contrast, form-based codes prioritize the physical form and layout of buildings: They regulate height, setbacks and how structures relate to the street, regardless of specific use. This clarity allows developers to follow a rules-based framework in which projects that meet predefined design criteria are approved more quickly and with less bureaucratic friction. The Residential Investment Corp. is Chicago's chance to transform urban living. No more dead-end land deals, blighted parcels or families ditching the city. Rooted in an urban tradition that stretches back millennia, courtyard blocks are the key to sustainable, family-friendly housing in cities such as Rome, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Barcelona, Istanbul and Copenhagen. They are the greenest, most affordable way to keep our neighborhoods vibrant, our schools full and our tax base strong. Let's build a greener, more affordable city where Chicagoans stay — and thrive — across the life cycle. Alicia Pederson, Ph.D., is vice president of the Greater Rockwell Organization and a member of local urbanist groups Abundant Housing Illinois and Strong Towns Chicago. She is also the mother of three children who attend elementary school in the Lincoln Square neighborhood.
CBS News
07-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
City Council approves Mayor Johnson's "green social housing" plan to boost affordable housing
Mayor Brandon Johnson's plan to create a city-owned nonprofit developer to help confront Chicago's affordable housing crisis was approved by the City Council on Wednesday. The council voted 30-18 to approve the mayor's so-called "green social housing plan," which would establish a nonprofit real estate development corporation under the Chicago Department of Housing. That nonprofit, known as the Residential Investment Corp., would control a $135 million fund that would be used to provide low-cost loans to developers to build environmentally friendly buildings. Projects seeking $5 million or more in loans would require approval from the City Council. Loan payments from developers would go back into the fund to finance future projects. At least 30 percent of the units built in such projects would be set aside as affordable housing, while the city would maintain majority ownership stakes in the buildings. Officials said the goal of the program is to create 400 affordable units per year. Buildings financed through the program would have to meet Green Building Standards aimed at decreasing carbon emissions, reducing utility bills, and improving indoor air quality. The nonprofit would be overseen by a board of 15 directors, mostly appointed by the mayor, including seven experts in housing and real estate development; as well as the city's Housing Commissioner, Chief Financial Officer, and Planning and Development Commissioner. Their meetings would have to be open to the public, and their records would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. "I'm confident that Green Social Housing in Chicago will become a model for the nation," Johnson said in a statement after the ordinance was approved. The proposal faced weeks of debate in committee before the vote, and underwent at least two revisions to satisfy concerns from labor unions who feared it could privatize existing city jobs. The ordinance includes guarantees that the loan fund will use Department of Housing workers for any services similar to existing jobs within the department. Several aldermen also had raised concerns about ethics oversight of the nonprofit, but the version of the ordinance approved on Wednesday guarantees the city's Inspector General and Board of Ethics have investigative jurisdiction over the new nonprofit. Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th), who sponsored the ordinance with the mayor, said it was important to pass the ordinance at a time when the Trump administration's budget proposals threaten funding for 2,500 units of affordable housing currently in the pipeline in Chicago. "This will be another tool in our toolbox to help spur development in tough financial environments across the city, and not just for affluent communities, but this tool can help invest in neighborhoods where investors have been unwilling to," she said. "We know city government cannot do this alone, we know the private sector cannot do this alone, and we urgently need new solutions to fill the gaps in both the public and private sector." The $135 million fund will be financed from a $1.25 billion borrowing plan approved by the City Council last year.
