No Plan, No Voice: How the City Skipped the Process and Silenced Edgewater

🚫 A Bypassed Planning Process

The City has sidestepped the standard, community-centered planning process in Edgewater. The Chicago Department of Planning and Development (DPD) failed to conduct a Comprehensive Corridor Plan for the proposed upzoning of Broadway—something that’s normally expected for zoning changes of this scale.

By contrast, DPD and local Alders spent two years working with residents to create thoughtful, neighborhood-specific plans for both Western Avenue and 95th Street. Broadway deserves the same level of care and engagement.

💬 Community Voices Ignored

The DPD process in Edgewater has been superficial and exclusionary. A “downtown-style” vision for Broadway was developed without a residents’ advisory board or meaningful engagement from the people who actually live here.

Between October and December, DPD hosted just two one-hour open house events, featuring  a DPD pre-determined affordable housing upzoning vision for the Broadway business district. DPD's proposal was unveiled on poster boards and comments solicited via sticky notes. There were no DPD or Alder presentations, and no opportunity for Q&A or discussion of alternatives. Most concerning, there was nothing about community impacts or the surrounding Edgewater community. These sessions were swarmed by outside advocates pushing a single issue —affordable housing— with little representation from 48th Ward residents.

In stark contrast, the 2006 Broadway zoning framework, which DPD and the Alder are proposing to overturn, was enacted only after a two-year, resident-led planning process.

📎 View the 20 Feb 2025 Community Forum presentation

🚪 DPD Refuses to Engage Local Block Clubs

Since the plan’s unveiling, DPD has declined invitations to meet with ten 48th Ward Block Clubs that have formally expressed opposition. It also refused to attend a community-led forum focused on the impacts of the proposal.

Alderwoman Manaa-Hoppenworth has held no meetings of her own, but has attended Block Club Meetings and a Community Forum where hundreds of residents have come out to voice concerns about community impacts, the lack of planning, and rushing this upzoning. Yet, she has consistently deferred to the DPD framework as the sole solution, without addressing the substantive concerns raised by constituents.

📎 View the 16 Jan 2025 Ten Block Club Joint Letter to DPD Commissioner and Ald. Manaa-Hoppenworth community concern
📎 View the 20 Feb 2025 ENN-NEON Block Club Comments before the Chicago Planning Commission community concern
📎 View the  Mar. 20, 2025 Lakewood-Balmoral Resident Council letter DPD Commissioner and Ald. Manaa-Hoppenworth community concern

⚠️ An Explicit Effort to Cut Out the Community

Perhaps most concerning, DPD and the Alder have openly stated that one goal of the “blanket” B3-5 upzoning is to reduce future community review of development proposals on Broadway. This would streamline approvals for developers by eliminating Ward-level oversight and public input on individual buildings.

This fundamentally changes how planning and development happen in Edgewater—and not for the better.

⚠️ CPC Approves Plan with the support of Alderwoman Lena Manaa-Hoppenworth

At a three-hour hearing on February 20, 2025, the Chicago Planning Commission (CPC) heard testimony from more than 35 Edgewater residents who raised serious concerns about the Department of Planning and Development’s (DPD) “Framework for Broadway Land Use” upzoning proposal. Speakers called for a pause in the process and urged both DPD and Alderwoman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth to engage the community in a full Comprehensive Corridor Planning Process before moving forward.

Despite clear and consistent opposition from her constituents, Alderwoman Manaa-Hoppenworth spoke in support of the proposal. While several Plan Commission members privately questioned why the measure was advanced without first addressing community concerns at the ward level, nearly all ultimately voted to defer to the Alderwoman’s position. Only one commissioner dissented.

Edgewater Deserves Better

Major zoning decisions should not be rushed through with minimal input. They must be guided by transparency, collaboration, and long-term vision. Edgewater residents deserve a real seat at the table—not a poster board and a sticky note.