Illinois ended parking mandates; Chicago should remove them from its zoning code

# Overview

Chicago officials are preparing to implement POPA into the city's zoning rules. The mayor proposed doing this with an overlay district that would supersede existing parking requirements only where POPA applies. That approach will leave the underlying zoning code intact and require the city to maintain and apply an extra layer of rules for every project affected by POPA.

# What POPA actually does

POPA applies to residential and commercial uses, to new buildings and to changes to existing buildings. It removes locally imposed minimum parking requirements where most people live and work in Chicago. The state law was passed to reduce housing costs driven by arbitrary parking mandates, which can add substantial per-spot cost to construction, and to avoid rules that don't match actual demand.

# Why an overlay is counterproductive

The mayor's overlay concept treats the state law as an exception rather than aligning the zoning code with it. That choice creates three concrete problems:

• Extra bureaucracy: City departments already face staffing limits and long processing times for permits. An overlay forces planners, building inspectors, licensing staff, and developers to apply an extra eligibility check for every permit and license tied to parking rules.

• Ongoing maintenance burden: POPA's coverage can grow as transit service expands or is reconfigured. An overlay will need to be updated every time a new transit stop or route changes the law's geographic reach. That creates recurring administrative work and the risk of mismatch between state coverage and local application.

• Increased uncertainty for small builders and nonprofits: Many neighborhood-scale developers and community organizations do not have in-house zoning attorneys. Complex eligibility rules and exceptions will make it harder to determine whether a project can proceed without parking, discouraging modest infill that would pencil out under POPA's plain terms.

The overlay also preserves parking requirements on a tiny portion of city land (industrial sites, rail yards, airports, parkland, and water), leaving the zoning code longer and more legally entangled for areas with little or no housing or businesses.

# Recommended approach

Update the zoning code to remove references to minimum parking where POPA applies. That means: delete or revise any code language imposing parking minimums in covered areas, and remove special exceptions that attempt to replicate the state law as an overlay. This approach aligns local rules with state law, reduces administrative complexity, and lowers legal and operational risk.

# Practical implications for housing and small projects

Chicago has already reached the major policy milestone: Illinois eliminated parking mandates across the bulk of the city. The remaining step is technical but consequential: implement that change by cutting the outdated parking language out of the zoning code rather than wrapping the reform in a new layer of exceptions.