Chicago Open Space Impact Fee

[Jerry N.]

Does anyone know anything about the city’s Open Space Impact Fee Ordinance and the City Space Plan?More specifically, code section 16-18-070 seems to indicate that it may be possible to get this fee waived if the area meets the goals in the City Space Plan.There are many, many pages of reading material online about the plan, but we are trying to figure out how to tell if the goals for our area are being met.Property is pretty squarely between the actual parks of Wicker Park and Humboldt Park and close to the 606, so this may not be one of the areas of the city requiring additional green space.Basically, if there is a viable way (by meeting current criteria of the City Space Plan) we’d like to not pay the fee if we can supply the correct information.It is very challenging to decipher this and we get one shot at getting the fee waived.If it matters, we are taking an existing 2 flat and turning it into a 3 flat – allowed by area zoning and there are no changes to the footprint of the existing building.

We still have more research to do but we couldn’t even find specific information on the progress of the plan’s goals and what areas meet the Open Space Requirements now.

16-18-070 Individualized Assessment Of Impact.

Any person applying for a building permit may opt to submit an individualized assessment of impact in lieu of calculation of fees pursuant to the fee schedule in Section 16-18-050 hereof. Individualized assessments shall establish why new open space is unnecessary in the area because of adequate existing open space or why the fees should be reduced because of lower open space costs in the area than those estimated in Section 16-18-040 hereof. Existing open space shall be deemed to be adequate if it meets the goals set forth in the “CitySpace Plan”.

Any insight or direction would be appreciated!Thanks very much for taking the time to read this question.

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