The debate over the future of Broadway in Edgewater has intensified as the city prepares to vote on a rezoning plan allowing taller, denser buildings and expanded commercial uses. Neighbors opposed to the plan have launched billboard campaigns, hired an attorney, and organized forums under the banner of Edgewater Residents for Responsible Development (ERRD), arguing the proposal threatens small businesses, historic buildings, and quality of life. Supporters, including advocacy group ONE Northside and newer residents, contend the rezoning is critical for addressing housing shortages and expanding affordability under the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance. The proposal, introduced by Alds. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, Angela Clay, and Matt Martin, would reclassify Broadway from Montrose to Devon, with building heights up to 80 feet. The city council’s zoning committee is scheduled to consider the ordinances in October. The conflict underscores a broader citywide tension between development, affordability, and neighborhood preservation.

As Chicago weighs sweeping rezoning along the Broadway corridor, it’s critical to recognize the forces shaping these decisions. The YIMBY movement, an online community of activists who often don’t live in the affected neighborhoods, regularly rallies behind large-scale developments. Their advocacy can tilt zoning outcomes toward developer interests while undermining true affordability. The article below, highlighting cases like Old Town Canvas, shows how YIMBY support can sideline local voices and offer developers blank checks.

At a pivotal moment in Chicago’s Broadway rezoning debate, the Tribune Editorial Board urges compromise after repeated delays in City Council hearings. The city’s sweeping plan to upzone 2.6 miles of North Broadway has stumbled over legal notice requirements, creating an opening for negotiation. Edgewater Residents for Responsible Development (ERRD) has advanced a “Win-Win Roadmap” to reconcile housing growth with livability: allow high-density B3-5 zoning on Broadway’s deeper east-side lots near the Red Line, while preserving existing zoning and case-by-case review on the shallower west side. The group stresses the need to address traffic, parking, and displacement pressures, protect 45 identified heritage buildings, and redevelop vacant CTA parcels through a master planning process. The editorial warns that blanket upzoning risks higher property taxes, business displacement, and loss of architectural character without guaranteeing more housing. It calls on Mayor Brandon Johnson and Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth to lead with collaboration, balancing density with preservation to secure a “true win-win” for Edgewater and the city.

In a Chicago Sun-Times letter to the editor, Edgewater resident Brett Barnes challenges the city’s recent move to reduce or eliminate parking requirements for new housing near transit. He argues that most Chicagoans — including renters in affordable units — still depend on cars for work and daily life, especially in dense neighborhoods like Uptown and Edgewater already facing severe parking shortages. Barnes cites high car-ownership rates, past projects that worsened congestion, and flaws in studies claiming Chicago has excess parking. He contends that cutting parking primarily boosts developer profits without ensuring affordability, while burdening residents and small businesses with fewer spaces, more traffic, and instability. Calling the policy “trickle-down economics applied to housing,” he warns that eliminating parking mandates without binding affordability provisions harms communities rather than helping them.

In letters to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago residents Norm Cratty and Stephen Hutton sharply criticize the city’s proposed Broadway upzoning and its elimination of parking requirements. Cratty, a 48th Ward resident, calls the effort a rushed and “woefully inadequate” plan that exposes the inexperience of City leadership, arguing that zoning is being used as a blunt substitute for real planning. He warns the policy will worsen density-related problems, particularly parking, and neglects the needs of working-class and elderly residents who still depend on cars, especially amid looming transit service cuts. Hutton echoes these concerns, calling City Council “tone-deaf” for removing parking mandates in already overcrowded Edgewater, where congestion is high and recent road construction has compounded frustrations. Both letters stress that without research, community feedback, and balanced planning, the city risks deepening a crisis rather than solving it.

A Chicago Tribune editorial praises the reopening of four renovated CTA Red Line stations in Uptown and Edgewater as significant neighborhood upgrades but highlights the unresolved conflict over Broadway rezoning. While the stations bring wider platforms, improved accessibility, and safer design, the surrounding streetscape of car washes, strip malls, and surface lots has become the focus of debate. Mayor Brandon Johnson and Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth back sweeping upzoning and the elimination of parking mandates to encourage new housing, but neighborhood activists warn this could create a parking crisis and displace small businesses. Supporters argue that improved transit justifies reducing car reliance, while critics insist most households still need vehicles and fear rising costs and instability. The editorial concludes that until the CTA improves frequency, safety, and service, eliminating parking is premature. What’s needed now is a compromise that balances density, affordability, and community needs so Broadway can match the promise of its new transit hubs.

In a Chicago Tribune op-ed, longtime Edgewater resident Steve Weinshel argues that eliminating parking requirements while massively upzoning Broadway from Montrose to Devon is a recipe for crisis. The city’s proposal, part of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s “Cut the Tape” initiative, could add 10,000 housing units with little to no off-street parking, even though car ownership in Edgewater and Uptown remains high. Weinshel warns that current shortages already force residents to circle blocks in search of spaces, contributing to congestion, safety risks, and illegal parking. He contends the Department of Planning and Development relies on “wishful thinking” about reduced car use near transit, ignoring evidence that ownership rates remain at 1.3 cars per owner-occupied household and 0.9 for renters. Without careful study or planning, he argues, the policy will worsen quality of life, displace parking needed by businesses, and bring double-parking chaos to a narrow, already overburdened corridor. Instead, Weinshel calls for realistic planning that includes parking solutions, car-sharing programs, and recognition of density limits in already saturated neighborhoods.

A Chicago Tribune feature details the sharp divide over Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth’s plan to proactively upzone 2.6 miles of Broadway from Montrose to Devon, clearing the way for taller, denser development. Supporters — including Mayor Brandon Johnson, progressive aldermen, Loyola University, and the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce — frame the rezoning as a tool for affordability, vibrancy, and streamlined business growth. Critics, led by Edgewater Residents for Responsible Development, warn of business displacement, heritage loss, and higher property taxes, mobilizing legal challenges, flyers, and testimonial videos. Local business owners voice both fears and hopes: some fear losing long-held shops like Patio Beef, Vee-Vee’s African Restaurant, and Kim’s Hardware; others see potential for new customers. The plan, delayed over notice issues, is expected to return for an October City Council vote, where activists aim to force a two-thirds majority. The controversy pits competing visions of Broadway’s future — as a connector of density and transit or as a corridor needing preservation and incremental change.

A News Star report warns that the City’s Broadway Upzoning framework may drive up property taxes without delivering promised housing benefits. Edgewater residents criticize the plan as a top-down, “bulldozer” approach lacking studies, planning, or genuine community input. Property tax expert Andrea Raila explains that rezoning properties to higher-density classifications like B3-5 raises their assessed value, leading directly to higher taxes — a burden that could push small business owners to sell to developers. Research cited by urban scholar Yonah Freemark reinforces these concerns: recent Chicago upzonings boosted land and condo values but showed no increase in housing construction over five years. Instead, reduced parking requirements and higher density allowances mainly raised transaction prices, eroding affordability while rewarding landlords. The article argues that, absent a pause for deeper study, the framework risks harming neighborhood businesses and residents with rising costs while failing to produce meaningful new housing.

Writing in the News Star, former Chicago Housing Commissioner Jack Markowski argues that Edgewater faces a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revitalize its historic downtown around Bryn Mawr, Hollywood, and Broadway as CTA’s Red/Purple Line modernization wraps up. Years of disruptive construction have left many businesses shuttered or struggling, but large tracts of newly available land could anchor a bold, mixed-use redevelopment. Markowski envisions a master plan integrating heritage preservation in the Bryn Mawr Historic District, connections to the new CTA station, and new commercial destinations paired with hundreds of mixed-income housing units. Instead, he warns, city leaders appear poised to issue fragmented RFPs for three separate parcels, with no unifying vision. He criticizes Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth for focusing on a blanket upzoning of Broadway rather than leading a comprehensive planning process. Without coordinated leadership, he cautions, the community risks squandering a rare chance to create a cohesive, vibrant city center.

In a Chicago Tribune op-ed, John Holden, president of the Edgewater Historical Society, denounces the Johnson administration’s Broadway upzoning proposal as “hastily conceived” and a threat to Edgewater’s character. The plan would permit up to 10,000 new housing units along Broadway—on top of thousands already allowed under current zoning—doubling building heights from four to eight stories. Holden warns this would accelerate the demolition of more than 40 historic properties documented in a 2019 survey, many of which house small businesses and affordable apartments. He argues that promises of reduced rents and CTA ridership boosts are unfounded, noting that Edgewater and Uptown already have ample available rentals. Holden cites Fulton Market as proof that combining development with historic preservation fuels true vibrancy, contrasting it with Broadway’s proposed “boxlike” replacements. He stresses that Edgewater is not opposed to growth, but supports contextual, well-designed development on vacant lots, which could meet demand for decades. Without protections, he cautions, the city risks sacrificing the very architectural heritage and human scale that made Edgewater’s revival possible.

In an April 9 News Star op-ed, the Edgewater Residents for Broadway Coordinating Committee (now Edgewater Residents for Responsible Development, ERRD) criticizes Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth’s introduction of an ordinance to blanket-upzone 1.5 miles of Broadway and its cross-streets to B3-5. The group argues the measure ignores widespread neighborhood opposition and bypasses a genuine planning process. ERRD instead advances its Win-Win Roadmap for Responsible Rezoning, which balances affordable housing, livability, and preservation. Key proposals include: a master plan for CTA parcels and the Bryn Mawr Historic District; targeted upzoning to dash-5 only on the east side of Broadway, paired with traffic and small-business safeguards; retaining case-by-case project review on the west side; limiting new “permitted uses” to protect neighborhood-serving retail; and safeguarding 45 heritage buildings, potentially through a Broadway Landmark District. The coalition urges Manaa-Hoppenworth to pause the ordinance and collaborate on a compromise that fosters affordability and revitalization without sacrificing Edgewater’s historic character or small-business base.

Edgewater Residents for Responsible Development (ERRD), a neighborhood coalition, has released a “Community-Driven Roadmap” offering an alternative to the City’s blanket proposal to rezone Broadway and cross-streets to B3-5, the densest business district classification. ERRD argues the ordinance was rushed without planning or sufficient community input, threatening the corridor’s character and livability. Their roadmap proposes a balanced approach: a master plan for central CTA parcels and the Bryn Mawr Historic District; targeted upzoning on the east side of Broadway, where deeper lots along the Red Line can accommodate denser housing, contingent on traffic and small-business protections; and retention of project-by-project review on the west side, where shallow lots border low-density homes. ERB also urges preserving current business “use” restrictions rather than allowing dozens of new by-right uses, and protecting 45 historic buildings identified by the Edgewater Historical Society. The plan emphasizes growth through thoughtful, inclusive planning while safeguarding small businesses, affordability, and neighborhood heritage.

Edgewater’s Broadway Transit Corridor has thrived under the current zoning framework established in 2006. With steady growth and community-driven planning, the numbers speak for themselves.

The Edgewater Residents for Broadway (“ERB”) supports the following positions as the alternative to a City proposal to radically upzone north Broadway in Edgewater.