Politics

New Bird-Friendly Building Ordinance Stuck in City Council Purgatory, But Lead Sponsor Says Measure Still Has Wings

A bird-friendly building ordinance has once again been introduced to the Chicago City Council — the second time such legislation has been brought before City Council since 2019 — but advocates fear the measure was dead on arrival.

At the March 18 meeting of City Council, Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward) invoked a procedure that sent the bird-friendly ordinance to the Rules Committee, a committee commonly known as the place where legislation goes to die.

“I think everyone feels frustrated at understanding the opposition that sent the legislation to Rules,” said Annette Prince, director of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors.

Bird-friendly building legislation — intended to help stem the epidemic of birds killed and injured in collisions with Chicago buildings — was previously stymied in 2020.

Back then, City Council kicked the issue to the Department of Planning and Development, instructing the department to give greater weight to bird-friendly mitigations within Chicago’s Sustainable Development Policy.

It was a blow to bird advocates: Only 50 to 75 projects per year are subject to targets set by the Sustainable Development Policy, leaving scores of other buildings exempt from implementing any bird-friendly mitigations.

Would it be acceptable for fire safety regulations to only target 10% of buildings, or 50% or even 90%? Prince asked.

Advocates continued to pursue a bird-friendly ordinance. Last summer, Ald. Maria Hadden (49th Ward), chair of the Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy, held a subject matter hearing on the topic.

What she learned from experts during testimony is that the cost of bird-friendly building solutions wasn’t nearly as steep as it had been portrayed, Hadden told WTTW News. Multimillion-dollar projects could add bird-safe protections for a fraction of a percent of the total construction price tag.

After spending months crafting an ordinance, including consultations with bird advocates, Hadden and her co-sponsors — Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) and Ald. Ruth Cruz (30th Ward) — introduced the legislation in March, knowing it needed to be sent to the very busy Zoning Committee for further review.

“I wanted to get it in queue,” Hadden said.

Prince called the proposed ordinance reasonable, achievable, effective and a fair compromise.

While Hadden said she hadn’t anticipated Beale’s maneuvering — something she suspected was due to concerns from the development community — she said it’s more than premature to refer to the ordinance in the past tense.

Beale did not respond to a request for comment from WTTW News. 

Despite the Rules Committee roadblock, Hadden said she remains confident the legislation still has wings, and she and her co-sponsors are still hoping for passage sometime this summer.

There are a couple of ways to move legislation out of Rules, Hadden explained, including waiting 60 days to bring the ordinance before the full City Council for a vote to have the measure freed from legislative purgatory. If the ordinance is sprung from Rules, it will then be sent to the Zoning Committee, where Hadden referred it originally.

Hadden acknowledged that the inner workings of City Council — the proverbial sausage-making — can seem opaque to civilians.

“It’s natural for people to be concerned,” Hadden said of bird advocates’ anxiety over the Rules Committee assignment.

“The legislative process is tricky,” Hadden said, but the ordinance is still “very much alive.”

Contact Patty Wetli: [email protected] 

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