UChicago Students Rally for Illinois Zoning Reform
Illinois is grappling with a web of crises, from the shortage of affordable housing to escalating threats from climate change to the high cost of living. But one student-led group on UChicago’s campus sees an unexpected lever for change: zoning reform.
UChicago group Students Against Exclusionary Zoning (SAEZ) — a coalition of students from the Phoenix Sustainability Initiative, Environmental Justice Task Force, Environmental Research Group and Harm Reduction Project — is supporting three bills recently introduced to the Illinois Legislature by IL State Representative Kam Buckner and IL State Representative Theresa Mah. The core bill of these three, the HB 3288 Affordable Communities Act, seeks to curb the social and environmental impacts of single-family zoning.
Since the 1950s, Illinois’ development pattern has been suburban sprawl: the practice where large swathes of land are zoned for exclusively low-density, single-family residential. “This limits the supply of homes and drives up costs for both renters and people that want to buy homes,” argues Eshan Dosani, a senior in the College and founder of the SAEZ coalition, in an interview with The Gate.
The proposed law lifts single-family-only zoning restrictions in cities with a population over 100,000, targeting Illinois’ eight largest cities. SAEZ emphasizes that this bill does not ban single-family homes. Instead, it legalizes cities to incrementally grow to meet housing demand through duplexes, triplexes and other forms of missing-middle housing in a way that will increase the stock of affordable housing and tackle the environmental and financial pitfalls of suburban sprawl.
According to a recent survey, Illinois is short of 298,000 affordable homes, despite recent legislative efforts to confront the issue. Restricting density to low levels artificially limits the supply of housing units. As a result, high rent, mortgages and other costs due to the shortage of affordable housing leave nearly half of residents “rent-burdened,” meaning they pay over 30% of their income on housing alone.
Similar legislation has already been introduced across the Midwest. In 2020, Minneapolis introduced legislation that allowed the construction of multi-family housing within areas previously zoned exclusively for single-family. As a result, from 2017 to 2022, housing stock in the city increased by 12% while rents only grew by 1%, compared to a 30% increase in rent nationwide over a similar time frame. Grand Rapids, MI introduced a similar law in 2008 that led to a substantial rise in affordable housing availability. These are just a few examples SAEZ argues Illinois can draw upon to capitalize on the recent wave of zoning reforms across cities and states.
The proliferation of single-family zoning has significant effects on the cost of living for Illinois’ residents. Increased distances caused by suburban sprawl lead to longer commuting times, which increase fuel and vehicle expenses for commuters. For example, in Aurora, which is almost exclusively single-family zoned, residents pay double the amount of gas and vehicle costs as residents in denser Chicago. Longer travel times also lead to higher tailpipe emissions per commute, amplifying the transportation sector’s significant contribution to climate change.
Single-family zoning also has negative impacts on municipal finances. Cities across the US often prioritize the short-term financial benefits of new suburban development over the long-term costs of maintaining infrastructure. For example, when a developer finances a new low-density housing neighbourhood, the city initially incurs little to no cost for the extensive infrastructure required, such as the additional miles of roads, water pipes and city services. This new development appears beneficial in the short term, as it brings new residents and business and increases municipal tax revenue.
However, as this infrastructure deteriorates over time, the maintenance and replacement costs are left to the city. Yet, the tax revenue generated by a small number of residents in low-density developments is insufficient to cover the maintenance costs of the expansive infrastructure. To fill this financial gap, many cities resort to developing even more suburban land, perpetuating a cycle where temporary new growth is used to subsidize the maintenance of existing infrastructure. Non-partisan urbanist organization Strong Towns labels this pattern of suburban development as the “growth ponzi scheme.” They argue that this “ponzi scheme” of endless growth of exclusively single-family zoning developments inevitably ends in a financial crisis once the growth slows.
While the bill aims to address a network of problems arising from single-family zoning, SAEZ is expecting some pushback from developers and local politicians. In 2023, the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development investigated Chicago City Council members’ use of “aldermanic prerogative,” the power allowing individual council members to veto zoning and development decisions. They found that the practice has been used to block affordable housing in majority-white neighborhoods and to reinforce racial segregation.
“We expect pushback from certain local officials and the organizations that represent their interests, because this bill shifts decision-making power away from them. That’s why having change happen at the state level is so important. This bill is about making sure housing decisions are driven by the needs of communities as a whole, not just the preferences of a few local politicians,” says Dosani.
So far, SAEZ has partnered with Abundant Housing Illinois — formerly Urban Environmentalists Illinois and the local YIMBY chapter — to create the Illinois Homes For All Coalition. This coalition seeks to collaborate with social and environmental justice organizations across the state to support HB 3288 and its companion bills. HB 3552 would relegalize Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), also known as coach houses, which are naturally affordable and already integral to many neighborhoods. The People Over Parking Act would eliminate parking mandates near transit hubs, unlocking land for housing and economic development while promoting low-carbon transportation options.
“The reality is, Illinois is in a housing crisis. Rents are skyrocketing, homeownership is out of reach for too many people, and single-family zoning makes it worse by limiting where affordable housing can be built. People want change, and we’re hoping to mobilize that energy into addressing the problem head-on,” argues Dosani.
Photo by Paul Sableman, licensed under CC BY 2.0