Mayor Johnson's lack of clout weakens granny flat ordinance, stalls Council reorganization

The power vacuum created by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s political unpopularity and the free-for-all it creates at City Hall was on full display Thursday.

Johnson will be forced to settle for a far weaker version of a long-stalled granny flat ordinance that is likely to result in just a fraction of the affordable housing he had hoped to produce.

And the mayor’s plan to use the resignation of City Council deal Walter Burnett to appease critics and shore up his base in the progressive and African American communities was derailed by the leadership vacuum caused by Johnson’s diminished clout.

The thorny issue of accessory dwelling units has been kicking around the Council for years.

Johnson had vowed to do “everything in my power” to ignore what he viewed as parochial interests and deliver a citywide ordinance that would chip away at Chicago’s 120,000-unit shortage of affordable housing.

“If we don’t build more affordability, that will change the culture of our communities," the mayor said several weeks ago. "Where people cannot afford to live in this city, that is far more dangerous than some of the trepidations that might be coming from some alders.”

But 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn used the summer recess to outmaneuver the first-term mayor.

A savvy political strategist who learned the game as chief lieutenant for now-convicted former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, Quinn enlisted support from organized labor in his bid to preserve the character of wards like his own that are dominated by single family homes.

Quinn worked with Acting Zoning Chair Bennett Lawson (44th) to draft a compromise that sweetens the deal for building trade unions by requiring that any new coach house, attic or basement unit be built by “workers from an approved labor apprenticeship program.”

The watered-down ordinance would expand Chicago’s granny flat pilot program in multi-unit residential and commercially zoned areas, meaning coach houses and tiny homes could be built there without special permission from the city.

But in neighborhoods dominated by single-family homes, alderpersons would need to opt in to the program, giving the local Council member authority over the granny flats in their wards.

Quinn predicted Thursday that only five alderpersons would opt in to the ordinance, joining the five pilot areas already in existence.

If his prediction is accurate, the trickle of affordable units produced will barely make a dent in Chicago’s affordable housing shortage.

“I’m thrilled with the outcome,” Quinn told the Sun-Times before Thursday’s expected vote. “The word `compromise’ doesn’t get thrown around enough in City Hall. And that’s what this is.”

Quinn made no apologies for the limits he set in response to “close to 1,100 conversations” with his Southwest Side constituents concerned about overcrowded schools, slow response times, excess garbage and rats.

“If we start accelerating growth, all of those issues are going to ramp up even faster. And this idea that [people can] potentially come and buy up homes and turn a single-family home into a three-flat overnight doesn’t sit well with my residents," Quinn said.

Johnson’s City Council reorganization was another casualty of his diminished clout.

The Rules Committee that preceded Thursday’s meeting was delayed for more than two hours as disgruntled members of the Black and Hispanic Caucuses huddled with Johnson and his top aides in the mayor’s office on the fifth floor of City Hall.

When the Rules Committee finally got around to voting, it was only to install Burnett’s son Walter Redmond Burnett to replace his father as 27th Ward alderperson.

The rest of the mayor’s proposed line-up was stalled indefinitely.

Johnson had hoped to replace Burnett as chair of the powerful Zoning Committee with 1st Ward Ald. Daniel La Spata.

Instead, he’ll have to settle for Lawson, who has held the job for months on an interim basis ever since now-former Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) was forced out over allegations of manhandling an aldermanic colleague.

A City Hall source who asked to remain anonymous, said the strong mayor, weak Council form of city government that made it relatively easy for both Mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel to get what they wanted is over. Lori Lightfoot didn't have it either, the source said.

“That strength comes from deep-pocketed backers willing to fill your campaign coffers and also make calls of their own to lobby alongside you,” the source said. “Johnson doesn’t have a giant war chest. And he doesn’t have those rich friends and allies. So there’s just a vacuum of power at City Hall. And in response to that vacuum, it becomes every man and woman for themselves. It’s a free-for-all.’ “