City’s Cut the Tape Initiative
Client: Chicago Office of the Mayor
Opportunity
Chicago needs more affordable housing and more vibrant commercial corridors across the city. The City currently has in place longstanding development-related administrative policies and processes that significantly influence the types, kinds, and locations of developments built. These policies and processes were developed with the intent of advancing resident interest, public health, efficient urban layout, and high-quality design. However, some of these policies and processes, although well-intentioned, can hinder the speed and cost of development.
Civic Consulting Alliance was engaged by the Deputy Mayor of Business and Neighborhood Development to help identify inefficiencies, build actionable recommendations, and support the City in sustaining momentum for reforms. Our team has been actively involved in the “Cut the Tape” initiative since Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Executive Order initiating Cut The Tape in 2023. CCA worked with the Mayor’s office to publish a Cut the Tape Report that includes 107 recommendations to streamline development approvals, including quick wins that were completed in as little as three months, and 10 Big Bets that are time-intensive strategies that will lead to a more efficient and equitable development approval process.
Action
Following the report release in April 2024, our team continued to support the project management and implementation of Cut the Tape by providing ongoing project management support, facilitating Cut the Tape Task Force meetings, and working with a Protiviti Fellow to build a public progress tracker for recommendations.
The Mayor’s Office utilized additional support from our CCA team to drive momentum of select “Big Bets”:
Initiate expedited reviews for affordable housing projects (#2);
Evaluate the feasibility of streamlining the Community Development Commission and Chicago Plan Commission (#4)
Create a Citywide standard cash advance program to make it easier to move high-impact projects forward (#8)
Evaluate and update the debt check process for building permits (Part of BB #9 to Create a City Wallet)
Evaluate the feasibility of reducing the administrative burden of the City’s Economic Disclosure Statement (#10)
“Civic Consulting Alliance has been a trusted partner in our work to cut the tape and make it easier to build and do business in Chicago. They understand how City government works, bring departments together, and deliver clear, actionable recommendations that will drive economic growth in every neighborhood for generations.”
Impact
Cut the Tape has had impact in three key areas:
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The City has created new structures that ensure cross-departmental coordination, channels for developer feedback, and accountability to the public. These include:
Abigail Sullivan was hired as the inaugural Director of Process Improvement in the Mayor’s Office to lead this work and to serves as the point person for inquiries or feedback.
Launched the Cut the Tape Task Force of 50 development leaders from the development community, including developers, architects, attorneys, and advocates, to provide in-depth advice and feedback to the City as it works to continuously improve its development processes.
Created a cross-departmental roundtable to monitor and troubleshoot the City’s development projects and processes.
Launched a working group to determine how to improve internal coordination on Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO) processes from intake through lease-up.
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Big bets and goals have been made, and there is building momentum for several recommendations.
Highlights include:
Office of the Mayor worked with City Council stakeholders to secure passage of an ordinance eliminating parking requirements for transit-served locations – Cut the Tape recommendation #82 - an example of progress on their year-two priorities.
City Council amended the Chicago Zoning Ordinance to allow applicants for Type 1 zoning changes to incorporate requests for variations and administrative adjustments into Type 1 zoning change applications – eliminating duplicative review processes that frequently caused delays and created additional costs for developers
City Council adopted changes to the zoning code allowing for ground floor commercial-to-residential conversions.
Cut the Tape and City Council partners are actively reviewing changes to the Economic Disclosure Statement (EDS), a particularly burdensome requirement which slows down and deters real estate developments in the city.
Introducing an ordinance to consolidate Department of Planning and Development Capital Grant funding requirements, structures, and sources of three programs into two grant tracks: Medium and Large
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The City has made changes to improve developers’ user experience and reduce the time it takes to navigate the City’s approval process, including:
Streamlining how developers make their case to the Zoning Board of Appeals to reduce this time-intensive process, including changes to the forms required and requiring hearing files to be posted online in advance of hearing dates, eliminating the need for parties to orally explain the full case at hearings, and increasing public transparency for respondents.
TheDe partment of Housing published a streamlined Architectural Technical Standards (ATS) Manual with clearer design requirements, more flexible contracting processes, overhauled design milestones, and a new approach to construction contingency.
Developing and publishing process maps that comprehensively describe the City’s multifamily financing and closing process.
Creating an publishing a checklist to make the steps for Redevelopment Agreement (RDA) execution and payment requisition more clear and consistent.
Revamping the business license website to make finding and applying for licenses more user-friendly.
In May 2025, the City released a one-year report that celebrated that more than 90% of the 107 recommendations were completed or are in progress.
The completed recommendations are already having a significant impact, and these impacts will be compounded as additional recommendations are finished. For example, the time to approval for typical plan development applications dropped from an average of 131 days in 2023, to 79 days in 2024.
As part of Cut the Tape, the City has developed tools and structures needed to improve its development processes. These changes will move the City toward its goals of increasing affordable housing production and boosting underinvested commercial corridors across Chicago.
What’s Next
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Cut the Tape for Small Business, nine new recommendations in a comprehensive effort to update and streamline the City’s administrative processes in service of making it faster and easier to open and operate a small business in Chicago.
Our team is supporting streamlining the business licensing process by developing recommendations on how to improve the City’s pre-license inspection process. These recommendations will support departments that handle pre-license inspections for opening a business, such as the Chicago Department of Public Health for restaurants or the Chicago Fire Department for fire safety, to ensure inspectors provide a consistent and more transparent experience. Ultimately, this more streamlined process will reduce delays and administrative costs for business owners associated with City processes.