Mayor Lori Lightfoot wants to create more affordable housing in Chicago. She also wants to curb aldermanic privilege, the long-standing custom giving aldermen veto power over real estate developments in their wards.

Two projects, one in Pilsen and one in Humboldt Park, show that accomplishing both goals at the same time isn't always easy. For two recently elected democratic socialists on the City Council, aldermanic privilege actually is turning out to be a useful tool as they push to build more affordable housing in the neighborhoods.

In Pilsen, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, is using it to hold up a New York developer's proposal for a 434-unit apartment project that sets aside 20 percent of the units as affordable. That level would conform with current zoning for the gentrifying neighborhood. But it's not enough for Sigcho-Lopez, who wants 30 percent.

In Humboldt Park, Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, has balked at a New Jersey-based developer's proposal to convert a former elementary school into 116 apartments that would be marketed toward public school teachers. About 60 percent of the units would be classified as affordable, four times the level required under current zoning. But La Spata held up approval of the project until recently, unable to placate the forces lined up against it.

Aldermen like Sigcho-Lopez and La Spata create a dilemma for Lightfoot, who is trying to build relationships in the City Council but made reforming aldermanic prerogative a priority of her campaign. Critics of the largely unwritten practice—many in real estate development—say it gives aldermen too much unchecked power and results in 50 sets of rules for 50 Chicago wards.

Lightfoot drew praise when she spoke out against aldermanic privilege in her May inaugural address. Within hours of being sworn in, she signed an executive order, her first as mayor, to rein it in.

But Lightfoot made it clear her early focus would be to strip aldermen of their power to control licensing or permitting decisions in their wards, a power that Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, is accused of abusing in a wide-ranging federal indictment this year. Burke denies the charges. The mayor faces a tougher task restraining aldermen in more complicated and politically sensitive zoning decisions.

Lightfoot also must strike the right balance between promoting a progressive affordable housing agenda and running a rules-based system that developers and businesses can live with.

While combating gentrification is a worthy goal, the Pilsen and Humboldt Park examples show how aldermanic privilege can "create huge unpredictability for developers who feel the goal posts are being moved," says DePaul University professor Joseph Schwieterman, director of the school's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.

"There's a real cost to the city as a whole when the expectations change," says Schwieterman, author of the 2006 book "The Politics of Place: A History of Zoning in Chicago."

Sigcho-Lopez and other aldermen argue that aldermanic privilege gives their constituents a voice in key decisions that affect the quality of life in their wards. Developers present their proposals at community meetings where residents can speak. Aldermen approve, reject or request changes to projects based on what their constituents say.

"For me, it is important to have a process that empowers residents to be a part of the discussion," Sigcho-Lopez says.

Not many people, including Lightfoot, would argue with that. A statement from the mayor's office stresses the need for "community engagement" in the zoning process. But the words "aldermanic privilege" are conspicuously absent.

"Aldermen play an important role in this process—from beginning to the end—as they know the needs of their communities firsthand," the statement says. "We share many concerns that aldermen have around affordability, design, and community support; and, we believe that we can work together to craft more effective and objective tools to address these concerns."

'TENSION'

The process got messy in Humboldt Park, where Newark, N.J.-based RBH Group plans to convert the Von Humboldt Elementary School into apartments. Even though RBH's plan includes far more affordable units than required under current zoning, La Spata put the brakes on the project amid strident opposition to it.

The freshman alderman pulled RBH's proposal off the agenda of the Plan Commission's November meeting, telling Block Club Chicago that "there is still a lot of tension within the community." The proposal is back on the agenda for the commission's Dec. 19 meeting, a sign that La Spata, who declines to comment, is satisfied with it now.

Though aldermanic privilege delayed his plan, RBH CEO Ron Beit isn't complaining.

"I think it was a healthy process," he says. "It ensures good development, which we like."

In Pilsen, Sigcho-Lopez has created a zoning advisory board to vet development proposals. The developer of the 434-unit Pilsen apartment project, New York-based Property Markets Group, made the mistake of filing a request with the City Council for a zoning change without first presenting its plan to him or the board, he says.

The story is more complicated than that. PMG battled in the past with Sigcho-Lopez's predecessor, Daniel Solis, who retired this year. While alderman, Solis demanded that PMG set aside 21 percent of the apartments in its project as affordable. But PMG wouldn't agree to that much, so Solis pushed through a proposal to "downzone" the development site at 18th and Peoria streets to allow only industrial uses.

In 2018, PMG filed a lawsuit arguing that the downzoning was unconstitutional. Since then, however, the city has created a new zoning district in Pilsen, known as an ARO Pilot area, that would require PMG to set aside 20 percent of the units in a residential project on the site as affordable. In its request for a zoning change from the city, PMG acknowledges that obligation.

Citing the pending lawsuit with the city, a PMG executive declines to comment.

While Solis pushed PMG for 21 percent affordable, Sigcho-Lopez now wants 30 percent. He cites a nonbinding referendum in March in which voters in Pilsen and Little Village overwhelmingly supported the 30 percent requirement for new residential projects in the area.

Sigcho-Lopez also wants the city to embrace the 30 percent requirement in gentrifying neighborhoods throughout Chicago, part of a proposed "Development for All" ordinance, a broader affordable housing package he is pushing in the City Council.

Aldermanic privilege has become a dirty word in Chicago, evoking images of corrupt deals between aldermen and developers. But the power can also be used in a way that advances important policy goals, one reason housing activist Leah Levinger doesn't have a problem with Sigcho-Lopez using it in Pilsen.

"We think the affordable housing regulations should be a floor, not a ceiling," says Levinger, executive director of the Chicago Housing Initiative. "Using prerogative to push for higher affordable housing is fine."

The question for Lightfoot is whether it's good government.