The interim chair of the Chicago City Council\u2019s Zoning Committee is halting its meetings to try to force Mayor Brandon Johnson to appoint a permanent head of the critical committee.<\/p>\n
North Side Ald. Bennett Lawson, who has led the committee since August, said Monday he is no longer willing to serve as its interim chief. He has not called a Zoning Committee meeting for January and said Monday was the last possible day to do so.<\/p>\n
The decision stalls progress on potentially dozens of developments that will not be able to come before the City Council for final approval votes next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I continue to be in the acting role, it kicks the can down the road,\u201d Lawson, whose 44th Ward includes Lakeview, told the Tribune. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to force the issue and bring about a quick resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Appointing a chairperson for the committee has proven politically difficult for Johnson<\/a>. It has been complicated by a tangled mix of competing political interests, including the aldermanic Black and Latino caucuses and progressive and moderate council members, all vying for control of additional City Council committees.<\/p>\n The\u00a0mayor\u2019s initial pick, former Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, resigned while facing bullying allegations<\/a> from fellow aldermen. It was then left open in November 2023 before\u00a0Johnson tapped former Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. in September 2024. But Burnett stepped down from the council<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n While the chairmanship has remained unfilled since, Lawson has filled the interim role \u2014 first for nine months when Johnson and aldermen failed to select a successor after Ramirez-Rosa\u2019s resignation, and then again after Burnett stepped down.\u00a0When Burnett resigned, Lawson publicly stated he was unwilling to remain in the interim chairman role indefinitely.<\/p>\n Johnson said Monday he plans to share a proposal to reorganize the City Council chairmanships.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m confident we\u2019ll be able to land an agreement where people will understand the configuration,\u201d he said. \u201cAm I worried about any sort of delay? I don\u2019t have any reason to be worried about that.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked when he would make his proposal, Johnson only said, \u201cSoon.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to addressing complex issues related to development, the Zoning Committee also has meetings that typically last at least three hours. With an hourlong pre-meeting and the thorny issues it deliberates \u2014 gentrification, landmarking, design restrictions and more \u2014 the chairmanship adds a great deal of work for whoever holds it, Lawson said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there isn\u2019t a decision made, I get stuck with the responsibility, which is not insignificant,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason that it comes with a larger staff and a different office space and a seat at the Planning Commission, and, you know, a different seat at the table. That just isn\u2019t happening right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawson said he hopes to be selected by Johnson and aldermen to lead the committee. It would be a rare plum role for a City Council freshman, though Lawson previously served as the committee\u2019s chief of staff for four years before becoming its vice chair once he was elected as an alderman.<\/p>\n Johnson sought in September to install as chairman Northwest Side Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st. But aldermen rejected the mayor\u2019s shakeup and did not place the progressive who leads the Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee in the role.<\/p>\n Complicating the matter: Picking many aldermen would pull them away from other leadership positions and require even more reshuffling.<\/p>\n Ald. Gilbert Villegas has also floated himself as a potential candidate for the role. His ambition became clearer in November when Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, called for a vote that would have suddenly landed Lawson the seat.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not enough diversity within the most important chairmanships,\u201d Villegas told colleagues. \u201cI\u2019d like to make a motion to strike and insert Ald. Villegas as the Zoning chairman so that way we can move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n But instead of selecting Villegas or Lawson, aldermen decided not to vote for a chair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The interim chair of the Chicago City Council\u2019s Zoning Committee is halting its meetings to try to force…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":479720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[201382,20174,960,5386,1818,217364],"class_list":["post-479719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-bennett-lawson","tag-brandon-johnson","tag-chicago","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-zoning-committee"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115807802057879081","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}