September 2020 Coffee With Your GADs Recap & Advocacy Update

Each month the Chicago Association of REALTORS® hosts Coffee With Your GADs to keep you updated on what is happening in government affairs that affect your business. Watch the playback from our September 1 meeting to hear from our guest speaker on how to protect property during a crisis along with local, state and national updates.

Protecting Property During a Crisis

Tanya Triche Dawood, the Vice President & General Counsel of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, joined us for an update on the looting in Chicago and what their association is doing to combat it. The good news? After the last of three looting events, the Mayor’s office released a five-point plan to address the previous incidents and to prevent new events, as well as creating a task force to identify suspects. To help protect your properties and get involved, Dawood suggested the first step is creating a relationship with your police officer who is tasked as the business liaison for your district. Let them know you’re interested, you care and you want to be helpful in the future. Find your district’s business liaison officer here. This is a great resource to share with your retail clients, so that they may also connect with their CPD Business liaison.

City of Chicago Updates

The Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance was expected to, but did not, pass on July 21, as more conversations about the ordinance will continue through September. However, because of the budget, we do not foresee this being looked at again until next year. As for the Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO), the task force for the ordinance has convened and created a report that we are waiting to be released. Once released, there will be a comment period. This report and the comments will come into play when creating new ordinances.

Cook County Updates

On July 30, the Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance (RTLO) was introduced. This proposal has similar aspects of the city’s RLTO, but the county’s version includes no move-in fees. We expect that a redraft will come in the next couple of weeks. Depending on the language that is included in the redraft, a call for action may occur if the much-needed applicability questions and aren’t answered and home rule information isn’t included. Also, a Presidential Advisory Group was approved to meet regularly with the Assessor’s office next year as the city is reassessed. Invites for participants will be sent out soon.

State Updates

As for the state, the eviction moratorium has been extended until September 19. If it does expire in September, anticipate that there will be a large backlog of evictions that may go into winter, when evictions will not occur because of the weather. As we all know, the election is coming up in November. Vote by mail is an option for individuals in Illinois. Ballots need to be requested and will not be delivered to everyone. Although you will have until election day to mail in your ballot, we strongly encourage those using the mail-in option to have their ballot in the mail by the Friday before the election.

Watch the recording of the event below.