Bird-Friendly Buildings Update
Chicago sits on the Mississippi Flyway, one of the busiest bird migration routes in North America. Over 250 bird species migrate through Chicago. Birds use the lakefront, ponds, parks, street trees, and all other vegetation as resting and feeding stops during migration—they’re Chicago residents, too.
I am proud to be an original co-sponsor of the Bird-Friendly Building Design Ordinance, which would require new buildings and substantial window replacement projects to include bird-friendly glass or other measures in the first 100 vertical feet of the building. Many thanks to Alderman Brian Hopkins for originating this idea several years ago and for Alderwoman Maria Hadden, chair of the Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy, for championing the legislation this term. The ordinance continues to gain more sponsors, and I am hopefully that the City Council will adopt it before the end of our current term in May 2027.
Owners of existing homes and businesses have a role to play, too! Download the Make Your Building Bird Friendly Chicago toolkit at bit.ly/bfdguide to learn more about what you can do to prevent bird collisions. 🐥❤️🪟
Rental Housing Legislation
Many of you have reached out to our office about the various pieces of legislation concerning landlord-tenant relations, including the Protecting Renters Ordinance (PRO) introduced by Mayor Johnson and the Fair Accountability in Renting (FAIR) ordinance introduced by Alderman Gil Villegas. Thank you all for your thoughtful input! It is always helpful to know what 30th Ward residents think about pending legislation.
I believe the City’s Landlord and Tenant Ordinance is due for an update; many tenants in recent years and have faced significant rent increases or been required to pay unusual, unclear fees. When rent increases are too high, tenants are forced to move and find more affordable housing, but fewer and fewer units are truly affordable.
Both ordinances modernize requirements around security deposits, no longer requiring them to pay interest. This is likely to mean that more landlords return to requiring security deposits rather than non-refundable move-in fees.
Originally PRO did not give owner-occupied small buildings special consideration. Many small buildings are a major investment for their owners, and having to come up with thousands of dollars in relocation payments when an owner wanted to move in a relative or renovate the building could be financially devastating. After many meetings and negotiations, I am pleased to say that the newest version of PRO fully exempts owner-occupied buildings of six or fewer units from the requirement to provide relocation assistance.
In addition, for non-owner occupied the relocation payment amounts have been reduced to a flat $4,000 in most cases (the amount will change in the future depending on inflation). The relocation assistance requirement will also not apply for the first 12 months of a new tenancy.
I also want to note that these “Just Cause” relocation fees would only apply when a tenant is asked to move through no fault of their own, such as an owner wanting to move in a relative, renovate the unit or building, convert the building to condos, or other very specific reasons. Tenants who pay the rent late, create disturbances that impact other tenants, damage the building, commit criminal activity, etc., would not be eligible for this assistance.
I continue to believe that common ground can and must be found. A middle path that modernizes our laws, provides greater protections to tenants, and does not unduly burden landlords should be our goal. I will keep working to make this happen.
30th Ward Participatory Budget Season Begins
It’s that time of year: Participatory Budget season! The 30th Ward Participatory Budget process for 2026-2027 is kicking off this month, and YOU can help decide what we prioritize and select for up to $500,000 worth of projects from the ward’s annual “menu” money.
We will be asking you to tell us what percentage of the money should be spent in each of four categories:
And we also want your specific ideas and suggestions in each of those categories!
Visit our 2026-2027 Participatory Budget page starting next week for more information and to vote in Round 1.
Chicago Front Yard Survey
Chicago native and University of Oxford (UK) researcher Jessica Ryan-Smith has reached out to the 30th Ward, asking for YOUR help with a project to understand “how residential green spaces and native plants can help reduce flood risk in Chicago neighborhoods.”
The survey is open to Chicago residents with a front yard.
The link is here: http://bit.ly/chicago-front-yard-survey
