This is great... So long as the city also increases access to safe public transportation to the citizens.
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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You can read the caveat in the article:
That means apartment developers no longer have to provide parking for tenants if their project comes within a half mile of a Chicago Transit Authority and Metra rail line or a quarter mile away from a bus line.
This is inherently predicated on existing public transit lines. And eliminating more personal vehicle traffic means better bus transit and micromobility.
Yeah I saw that. My issue was due to what happened in Charlotte, NC where they had a very similar wording for their downtown area only to later remove the caveat where the builders had to check what public transportation is already available.
Seattle, and Washington state to a lesser degree, have done something similar along its huge light rail expansion. Any site within 1/2 mile of its stations has no parking requirements, and I think can be 4 stories tall. Anything within a quarter mile can be 6 stories.
Chicago has pretty good mass transit.
That is one tricky part. Chicago’s transit system has an unfortunately large funding deficit that the city and state are struggling to rectify. As I understand it, general ridership took a 1-2 punch from both COVID and the WFH movement (which, yes, was supercharged by COVID). Last article I saw said that some business buildings downtown have lost up to 50% of their tenants.
One thing that might help is the state is working on unifying Chicago’s three (yes, three) transit systems: CTA (the one most people are familiar with), Metra (longer distance trains for suburban commuters), and PACE (near suburb buses). Might streamline some things and save some money, but I don’t think that will fully close the gap. As a transit fan and advocate, I really hope we can find a way out of this mess.
I'd be fine with this sort of thing if the people living in the new developments weren't allowed to register cars. Otherwise they're using a public resource without contributing their share.
Some places thankfully do that. They limit how many cars people can own per 4 block radius (at least where I live). This limits how many cars people can own. I think limiting car ownership is a better approach than building in car parking.
Basically appartment developers used to be required to supply parking for residents near transit lines, but now aren't. Personally, I would make it hard to charge people for parking: people who drive win and also eliminates profit incentive to build parking.