Chicago City Council adopts Industrial Air Quality and Zoning Ordinance

On March 24, 2021, the Chicago City Council passed the Air Quality and Zoning Ordinance, which will impose additional regulations on certain industrial development.  The original version of the ordinance proposed by the Lightfoot administration would have required most industrial developments to receive special use approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals or planned development approvals from the Chicago Plan Commission, Committee on Zoning and Chicago City Council.  However, the compromise version that was approved on March 24 vests oversight instead primarily in the City Departments of Planning and Development, Transportation and Public Health.

With respect to transportation, distribution and logistics facilities (defined in the Chicago Zoning Ordinance as “warehousing and freight movement”), the Air Quality and Zoning Ordinance adopted on March 24, 2021 does the following:

• The Ordinance reaffirms that warehousing and freight movement uses are permitted in C, M, and PMD zoning districts.
• The Ordinance requires industrial developers of sites less than 10 acres that have “”newly-established uses or existing uses that change or increase their area, bulk or function” to submit project proposals for site plan approval, including submitting a site plan, traffic study, and “air quality impact evaluation” for review and recommendations by CDOT and CDPH.
• The Ordinance requires industrial developers to host at least one community meeting in advance of submitting for site plan approval with notices sent to the local alderman and to property owners within 250 feet of the subject property.
• Planned development approvals are required for (a) any warehousing, wholesaling and freight movement use on C, M or PMD-zoned property of 10 acres or more and (b) any industrial development on M-zoned land with a site area of 5 acres or more if the property is located within 100’ of any residential district.
• Warehouses may now include on-site retail sales, including of food and beverage, as long as the sales occur on the site (but such products need not be produced on-site).
• Industrial developments must comply with the City’s sustainable development policy.

See the ordinance here.

For more information about this ordinance, contact any of the members of the Chicago Land Use team at DLA Piper: 

Richard F. Klawiter
Theodore J. Novak
Paul W. Shadle
Mariah F. DiGrino
Katie Jahnke Dale
John Gholar