Chicago’s Historic Environmental Justice HUD Settlement

Chicago’s long legacy of environmental racism created sacrifice zones where polluting industries were allowed to accumulate next to schools, parks, and homes in communities of color. 

Three Southeast Side environmental justice organizations filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in October 2020 in response to the proposed relocation of yet another heavy industrial facility, General Iron, and called attention to the decades of racist zoning and land use policies that have created significant threats to the health of already disadvantaged communities. 

HUD reached a first-of-its-kind settlement with the city of Chicago and three Southeast Side environmental justice organizations in May 2023, in which the city agreed to take a number of significant remedial actions to reform long-standing policies that affect environmental justice and equity in Chicago.

The Settlement Agreement 

Cumulative impact assessment and the Environmental Equity Working Group

Before reaching a settlement agreement, environmental justice leaders became part of the Environmental Equity Working Group (EEWG) convened by the city. Our involvement aimed to collaboratively design a cumulative impact assessment (CIA) that would guide the revamping of multiple environmental justice policies. The working group and its process are now required under the settlement agreement and a baseline CIA is due to be completed by September 1, 2023. 

The EEWG is an innovative and powerful space for ensuring that the voices of community members are heard in the development of the CIA. Ultimately, the assessment will be essential in recommendations for a future cumulative impacts ordinance to reform land use, zoning, and other policies that affect the health of disadvantaged communities that bear the worst impacts of decades of racist environmental policies.

Cumulative impacts ordinance

The settlement paves the way for some major policy changes through a cumulative impacts ordinance that community leaders living in sacrifice zones have long urged for. 

After finishing the CIA, the HUD settlement requires the city’s chief sustainability officer and the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) to share their findings with both the mayor and the chair of the city council’s Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy by October 31, 2023.

The chief sustainability officer and the CDPH commissioner must also urge the committee to talk about the findings and suggestions from the assessment with the public. This will involve holding public hearings, including at least one dedicated to the subject matter of the assessment. The goal is to have open discussions and get public input on the assessment's outcomes and recommendations and how to introduce an ordinance that will change business as usual in Chicago and begin to dismantle the structures that created sacrifice zones in the first place. 

Interagency working group

Aside from the cumulative impacts ordinance, the settlement’s mandate for weaving environmental justice principles and plans into the operations of city agencies will have far-reaching impacts on communities. 

The Office of Climate and Environmental Equity (OCEE) and CDPH will lead a team of representatives from across city departments to address environmental impacts and develop an Environmental Justice Action Plan by Sept. 1, 2023, to address cumulative impacts and change internal policies for better protection. 

A progress report on the action plan's goals will be published by December 31, 2023, and annually thereafter. This report will show how each department is meeting commitments and improving conditions in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The chief sustainability officer will appoint an environmental justice project manager to coordinate efforts across departments. This includes enhancing notifications, public participation policies, and complaint procedures for communities affected by environmental issues.

Land use reforms and permitting

The settlement includes a commitment from the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) to submit a plan that will propose updating zoning regulations, such as the alteration or elimination of permitted-by-right or special use status for manufacturing, recycling, waste-related, and other intensive industrial land uses in commercial, manufacturing, and planned manufacturing zoning districts.

It also aims to create guidelines for inspections and enforcement to prioritize areas facing environmental justice concerns.

Data collection and transparency

The city will improve data collection and dissemination for land use planning, permitting, and monitoring. This includes expanding air quality monitoring, developing emission inventory tools, and providing access to environmental data.

CPDH will start a program that funds community organizations to set up, manage, and analyze data from an air quality monitoring network. Funding for this program could involve raising permit fees or requiring companies to pay for monitoring equipment as a permit condition.

The data collected from this network could have various uses. It might help identify areas with high pollution levels for future monitoring; assess the combined impact of air pollutants; enhance targeted inspections; develop and evaluate air quality policies; create models to predict pollution sources; respond to resident inquiries; and verify and adjust air quality data from sensors and models.

In addition, tools to identify pollution sources that affect local air quality—like real-time air dispersion models—will be developed. These tools can assist in checking if certain facilities are following regulations and help to investigate complaints about air quality.

Finally, CDPH must make environmental data, including air quality information and measures of cumulative impact, more accessible to the public through websites and dashboards.

CDPH will work closely with relevant agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Illinois EPA to coordinate efforts in enforcing regulations. CDPH will adopt a policy that reviews the compliance history of consequential facilities. This will help in making permit decisions based on past adherence to rules.

To improve responsiveness and transparency, they're setting up a process that gives more information about how the city addresses permits of intensive industries and nonemergency complaints. This covers issues like odors, dust, and air pollution.

Industrial corridor modernization process

DPD will maintain dedicated webpages for key initiatives like the Industrial Corridor Modernization Initiative, Chicago Sustainable Development Policy, and the Chicago Plan Commission, along with other land use planning projects. DPD is also obligated to develop proposed updates to each of those initiatives to address environmental justice issues specifically. In line with the newly adopted We Will Chicago citywide framework plan, DPD will begin a thorough assessment of its community engagement standards for planned developments. 

Chicago as a model for other cities across the country 

Our city, much like others across the country, has permitted industries to set up shop easily in neighborhoods like mine. After enduring years of neglect, our homes, schools, and parks find themselves encircled by an overwhelming number of polluting sources, leaving us under threat from their operations. We have so many examples of the ongoing discriminatory nature of Chicago's zoning policies to show to HUD. We were well aware that if we didn't stop the relocation of this facility, others would inevitably follow, worsening the already toxic pollution on the Southeast Side.

The civil rights settlement is an example of a comprehensive overhaul of Chicago's zoning and land use laws, and it could ultimately guide changes in other cities.