When Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) calls his first meeting of the City Council’s Zoning Committee as chair to order on Tuesday with a sharp bang of his gavel, the powerful panel will be firmly under the control of one of the strongest supporters of the decades-old tradition of giving Chicago City Council members the final authority over housing developments in their own wards.
Burnett, the longest serving member of the Chicago City Council, has long been one of the fiercest defenders of the largely unwritten practice of aldermanic prerogative. Burnett, who is also the vice mayor, told WTTW News on Monday that he will defer to the local alderperson before greenlighting a new development as chair of the Zoning Committee.
“I truly believe in community input,” Burnett said. “I want the people to have a voice. I don’t know every nook and cranny of every neighborhood. And when I say the people, I mean the alderman.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision to elevate such a stalwart champion of aldermanic prerogative to lead the Zoning Committee comes nearly a year after a probe by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that aldermanic prerogative fuels segregation in Chicago and violates the civil rights of Black and Latino residents by limiting the creation of affordable housing.
A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department said officials are “currently engaged in discussions” designed to correct the problems identified by federal officials as they investigated a civil rights complaint filed in November 2018 by the Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance.
The agency known as HUD concluded that aldermanic prerogative has created a hyper-segregated city rife with racism and gentrification.
Patricia Fron, the co-executive director of the alliance, a coalition of groups that have urged city officials to take steps to desegregate the city and provide more affordable housing, told WTTW News the alliance was unable to comment.
A spokesperson for HUD said the agency “does not comment on matters that are currently open.”
What is Aldermanic Prerogative?
Alderpeople exercise their prerogative at every committee meeting and at every City Council meeting on items ranging from sign permits to liquor licenses. But most of alderpeople’s historic clout comes from the fact that they alone have had the power to approve — or veto — proposals of all sizes.
That unwritten code also calls on other alderpeople to mind their own business and vote along with the alderperson whose ward includes the project.
In 2018, Burnett told former Ald. Tom Tunney (44th Ward) to do exactly that when Tunney, fighting to keep his City Council seat, objected to the amount of affordable housing planned in a development in Burnett’s ward.
“I know you are running for office, but don’t keep playing with my ward,” Burnett said, his voice rising in anger. “This is my ward. You are stepping too far. Don’t get involved in this.”
Supporters of aldermanic prerogative like Burnett tout it as the best way to ensure that Chicago residents live in neighborhoods governed by one of their own: someone who lives near them, understands their issues and is not only accessible — but also accountable to them on Election Day.
However, allowing each of Chicago’s 50 alderpeople a veto over housing developments in their wards allowed representatives of wards with a majority of White residents to “block, deter or downsize” proposals to build affordable housing, according to HUD’s probe.
Future of Tiny Homes
Burnett said the city’s negotiations with HUD have complicated efforts to allow property owners to build basement, attic and coach house dwellings on their property across the city as part of an effort to ease the city’s affordable housing crunch.
“We don’t want to hurt anything with that,” Burnett said.
In 2021, the City Council approved a limited end to the city’s 64-year ban on tiny homes by permitting the additional dwelling units in five areas of the city, with the approval of those areas’ alderpeople.
Although the city’s staff initially proposed to test the change by allowing tiny homes and granny flats across the city, opposition from now convicted former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th Ward) forced officials to scale back the program.
After city officials said the pilot program had been a roaring success, an effort to expand it citywide and make it permanent appeared to be on the verge of winning the approval of the City Council. But it ran into a wall of opposition from Ald. Marty Quinn (13th Ward), whose Southwest Side ward is made up of single-family homes.
Quinn told the Sun-Times the additional units could reduce the quality of life for residents in his ward, who value their suburban-like haven.
“I’m trying to help out Marty Quinn,” Burnett said. “Every ward is different.”
But that could run afoul of the city’s efforts address HUD’s concerns, since there is very little affordable housing in wards like the 13th Ward, which is made up of nearly 63% Latino Chicagoans, but less than 2% Black Chicagoans. Another 34% of the ward’s residents are White, according to city data.
Path to Burnett
As chair of the Zoning Committee, Burnett will be charged with implementing the city’s zoning code, the ultimate authority on what can be built on each street in Chicago, and determining when those standards should be changed, the heart of aldermanic prerogative.
Burnett takes control after 11 months of controversy that began when Johnson’s first pick to lead the powerful committee, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward), stepped down under fire.
Ramirez-Rosa apologized to Ald. Emma Mitts (37th Ward) for a “disrespectful interaction” as he scrambled at the height of the migrant crisis to prevent a vote on whether Chicago should remain a sanctuary city.
As Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th Ward) served as the committee’s interim leader, Johnson first turned to Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez (25th Ward), a progressive ally who has frequently demanded that the city build more affordable housing, to lead the Zoning Committee.
Leaders of Chicago’s business community mobilized to block Sigcho Lopez’s appointment as Zoning Committee chair, privately expressing concern that he would block developments that failed to set aside the maximum number of units possible for low- and moderate-income Chicagoans or include other costly benefits for the community.
That left Johnson little choice but to tap Burnett as a compromise candidate.
While Burnett has also championed the need for affordable housing, he is considered much more pro-development than Sigcho Lopez, having presided over the boom in the West Loop, greenlighting both commercial and residential projects.
Burnett is also respected and liked by many of his colleagues, while Sigcho Lopez, who remains the chair of the Housing Committee, frequently adopts a more aggressive tone on the floor of the City Council.
“I’m happy to be able to help the mayor,” Burnett said. “A lot of people are relieved.”
A protégé of former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, Burnett is also a skilled politician who came up through the ranks of the Cook County Democratic Party before being elected to represent the 27th Ward in 1995. Burnett makes no secret that he is willing and able to leverage his power to get his priorities accomplished.
Burnett’s ward will include the city’s new casino, sandwiched between the Cabrini-Green complex, run by the Chicago Housing Authority, and the gentrifying West Loop.
At the celebratory groundbreaking, Burnett said he remained concerned that residents won’t get jobs at the new casino and resort, and would block new development in his West Side ward until that’s corrected.
“My folks don’t eat, nobody eat,” Burnett said. “This is my neighborhood, these are my people. It is only incumbent upon me to make sure people from my neighborhood do well. This is personal for me.”
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]