Legalizing additional dwelling units across Chicago would expand housing options, support families and boost affordability without changing the character of single-family neighborhoods. Chicago’s mayor is ready to move on the issue.
Attic apartments, basement dwellings and other additional dwelling units could soon be legal to build across all of Chicago’s residential zones, but the city’s 50 aldermen need to give up some power to get there.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is “determined” to call for a vote at the July 16 city council meeting on an ordinance that would legalize accessory dwelling units across the city. It is the last opportunity before the city council takes a summer break.
The long-delayed ordinance, introduced by Ald. Bennett Lawson, 44th Ward, would allow homeowners to create additional dwelling units such as granny flats, coach houses and basement apartments.
This latest push for additional dwelling units comes amid growing urgency around the city’s affordable housing crisis. Chicago is short more than 120,000 affordable housing units, and the state of Illinois needs to build 227,000 during the next five years to keep up with demand.
But the proposal is facing resistance from some city council members, especially those representing districts largely zoned for single-family housing .
Those aldermen said broadening development of the units would threaten the character and quality of life in their neighborhoods. But when a single coach house is built in a backyard or on the side of a house, the visual disruption is minimal – no different than a shed or detached garage. Many additional dwelling units aren’t even visible outside the home, being built in attics, basements and garages.
Additional dwelling units create many positives for the families who build them. They allow for aging parents to remain close to their loved ones, such as Louise D’Agostino. She said she can now take daily walks with her granddaughter because her family was able to build a conversion unit on their property.
The units also allow young people to find smaller, more affordable units of housing in desirable neighborhoods. Joseph Miscimarra was able to move to Lakeview because of an additional dwelling unit.
“If ADUs didn’t exist in Lakeview, the lack of housing inventory would drastically drive up rent prices and taxes,” he said. “It is likely that I would have to pay much more to live in a smaller home farther from my desired location.”
The units make desirable neighborhoods more affordable, increase walkability and increased home values. Far from weakening single-family neighborhoods, they make them stronger.
Chicago’s zoning code has long restricted these units, even though they were once common in the city. Since banning additional dwelling units in 1957, the city has enforced a land use model that favors exclusivity and control rather than affordability.
The city’s 2020 pilot program, which allowed limited unit construction in five areas, produced a miniscule number of units compared to other cities. In 2022 alone, Los Angeles issued permits for over 7,000 of the units. Seattle issued 988. Chicago? Only 109. Then, only a small number of the units that received permits in Chicago got built.
According to Cityscape estimates, only 373 units have been built in the four years since the Chicago pilot was introduced. Most of those units have been in the North and Northwest pilot areas because of additional restrictions placed on majority-Black and Latino neighborhoods, such as owner-occupancy rules, vacant lot bans and permit caps. These policies suppress investment and block low-cost housing options where they’re most needed.
Legalizing accessory dwelling units citywide would begin to reverse these inequities. It would offer homeowners the freedom to adapt their properties, add rental income and support multigenerational households.
Chicago’s aldermen have an opportunity to expand housing supply without altering the look and feel of neighborhoods.