CHICAGO – Today, Mayor Brandon Johnson released an update on his Cut the Tape initiative, after a year of progress. Working across 14 City departments, the Cut the Tape Task Force has helped to drive advancements in 96 of the 107 recommendations put forward in the Cut the Tape report. After one year, key wins include strategic reforms to outdated zoning regulations that stifle development, streamlining approval processes by empowering departments to make administrative decisions, and consolidating review processes to move development along with greater expediency. Read the full update here.

“Working with partners across City government, non-profits, and the development community, we have made remarkable progress in just one year of work towards making Chicago an easier place to start a business and build,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson. “I’m proud of the work we’ve done together this past year, and I look forward to the transformative work ahead. This initiative is another step forward towards making Chicago the safest and most affordable big city in America.”

The updated report outlines the first year of reforms under the Cut the Tape initiative. The three key impact areas are: (1) reforming outdated policies, (2) streamlining approvals, and (3) enhancing transparency and trust. The reforms aim to make the development process easier so that the City of Chicago no longer serves as an impediment to housing and commercial development.

“Our goal is to make Chicago the easiest big city to build housing and start a business,” said Deputy Mayor for Business and Neighborhood Development Kenya Merritt. “After a year of hard work and collaboration, we are proud of the work that we have been able to accomplish together, and we are excited to go further in the year ahead.”

“Our focus is on making our City government more responsive to the needs of small businesses, entrepreneurs, and developers so that every part of our city can benefit from more housing, more jobs, and more business,” said Chief Operating Officer John Roberson. “We’ve accomplished a lot this past year, but we know the hard work is still in front of us. We are confident that by bringing people together, we can continue to make significant progress.”

“As Co-Chair of the Task Force, I’ve been heartened to see how Cut the Tape has embraced input and feedback from the development community in its approach to advancing its “big bets” and other recommendations,” said Paul Shadle, DLA Piper LLP, Cut the Tape Task Force Co-Chair. “These changes would lower costs and make Chicago a more predictable and transparent city in which to preserve and build housing or start a business. This would also make Chicago more attractive to the capital markets that fund our city’s economic development.”

“Streamlining environmental reviews for City-owned vacant land has been long overdue and transformative. The new process developed through the Cut the Tape initiative eliminates months of lengthy delays by removing redundant phases while still maintaining thorough due diligence,” said Maggie Cassidy, Community Investment Corporation. “This means community organizations and developers can now more quickly transform vacant lots into valuable neighborhood assets.” 

The updated report also lays out the bold reforms that the Johnson administration plans to pursue in the coming year to continue to advance this work. These targeted reforms include: modernizing parking rules, streamlining the Economic Disclosure Statement (EDS) Process, modernizing the Architectural and Technical Standards (ATS) Manual, launching a unified “City Wallet” to simplify transactions, and more. These common-sense reforms aim to eliminate barriers to housing and economic development to make Chicago more affordable for working people.

Read the full report here.

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