Illinois is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. Over a third of residents are considered “burdened” by housing costs, meaning they pay over 30% of their income on costs related to housing. That is a greater portion of residents burdened by housing than any other state in the Midwest. The state fell 113,000 housing units short of those needed in 2021 – the state would have had to increase its approval rate of new housing units by 42% from 2009 to 2021 to close that gap.1
This lack of affordability is driving people from the state. 20% of former Illinoisans who left the state citied housing reasons as their reason for leaving. The key to achieving housing affordability is to increase housing supply.2 Unfortunately, from Chicago to cities downstate, Illinois localities are falling behind the rest of the country when it comes to approving new housing permits.
The cause of the lack of new permits is varied. Illinois has seen continuous population loss for over a decade due to outmigration caused by high taxes, crime and better job markets in other states. Restrictive zoning laws make it illegal to build new or more dense housing in many places where there would otherwise be demand. Another issue is that it simply costs more to build a new house in Illinois than it does to purchase an existing home.
According to research conducted by Storagecafe.com in 2023, building a new home in Illinois cost an average of $461,000, $166,000 more than the average single family home listing price of $295,000 in the state – a 40% increase.3 That makes Illinois the third worst state in the country when it comes to the cost of building new homes compared to average listing price.4 The burdensome permit processes, high fees and long wait times imposed by municipal governments contribute to this increase in the cost of building new homes.
Permit delays are one of the more significant ways that the process increases the costs of housing. These delays hit the poor the hardest. When new homes are built, higher income families typically move into the new homes and leave their previous homes available for lower-income families.5 Scholarship suggests any policies restricting the building of new houses will reduce the availability of low-income housing as well and make housing less affordable overall.6 According to a 2021 survey by the National Association of Home Builders, delays in the development stage alone can cost over $1,400 for an average new home priced at $397,300.7
Applying for zoning approval cost on average $6,473, and compliance costs such as required fees and studies cost $11,791 on average. For an average new home in Illinois priced at $292,000 as of April 2024,8 Illinoisans could expect to pay $4,672 of the price in zoning approval, $8,760 in hard compliance costs and over $970 for delays alone.
The good news is there are solutions to make it easier to obtain a permit in Illinois, and these solutions can be implemented at the local level, tailored to the needs of the community. Chicago can reform its self-certification program that allows eligible architects and engineers to vouch for a building plan’s compliance instead of relying on reviews by city officials.
Chicago should reduce fees and expand the categories of projects eligible for self-certification to get more permits in the hands of developers, more quickly. Downstate Illinois municipalities should consider adopting their own self-certification programs, reduce their permit fees, streamline their permit review processes by centralizing their permit process, going paperless and implementing a simultaneous parallel review process for new permits. If Illinois cities take these steps, they can increase housing affordability and in turn stem and maybe even reverse the tide of people leaving their cities and the state of Illinois itself.
Illinois is not granting enough housing permits
As a state, Illinois is severely lagging in approving permits for new housing. Illinois approved the third fewest number of new housing units per capita of all states in the country.9 And that year is not an outlier – from 2019 to 2023, Illinois’ average number of new housing units approved per capita was ranked the second lowest only to Rhode Island, as well.
In fact, the number of new permits issued annually in Illinois since the housing crash peaked in 2017 at a little under 25,000 new units.10 Research from Up for Growth put Illinois at 113,000 fewer housing than was needed in 2021 alone. Meanwhile, the state has approved fewer than 100,000 new units in total since 2019.11
While Illinois has steadily lost population over the past decade,12 that loss in population has not been severe enough to compensate for the housing shortage, and even states with declining populations need to build new housing. In fact, Illinois gained almost 300,000 households from 2014 to 2023,13 even as it lost population overall. This means the same number of people will require more housing than before, and there remains the need to replace homes that have fallen into disrepair or are otherwise outdated. Some research14 suggests that lack of new housing can become part of a self-reinforcing process of population decline. The decreasing quality of housing stock can further depress demand and further discourage the new building needed to accommodate shrinking household sizes, encouraging more people to move out of the area.
In the past five years, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia all lost a greater percentage of their population than Illinois and managed to approve more new units per capita on average during that same period.
It is therefore imperative to look at Illinois’ policies to explain the state’s lack of permit approvals. Permitting is largely determined at the local level, and policies can vary from municipality to municipality, so it is necessary to compare them individually.
Permitting in Chicago
When compared to other major cities, the Chicago falls behind the rest of the pack. Of the top 10 most populous cities in the country, Chicago ranks dead last in average new housing units approved per capita in the past 5 years.
Since the housing collapse, the number of housing units the city approved peaked at 9,104 in 2016. The city approved a little over 3,600 units in 2023 – the lowest number approved in any year since the 2016 peak.
Chicago’s process has been historically burdensome for all types of permits. A 2010 report by the Institute for Justice illustrates the problem.
“The line to receive approval of a permit application from the zoning department forms around 6 a.m. each day. A business owner who arrives at City Hall midday is too late,” the report reads.15
In 2019, Chicago Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th Ward, penned an article laying out the difficulty of getting permits in the city.
“What I’ve discovered is that many parts of the city’s regulatory processes are mired in paper-only applications, in-person meetings at downtown offices (during work hours, on weekdays), and subsections of city departments with no publicly listed director or other staff contact that a constituent could reach out to with questions,” Vasquez said.16
Building permits are no exception. According to a Harvard Kennedy School of Government study, approximately 17% of zoning licenses were sent back without processing because of insufficient information, and over 1,300 buildings required more than three different inspections each year.17
Historically, “Aldermanic prerogative,” a customary veto alderman have been allowed over proposed projects in their wards, have proven an obstacle to building in the city. The Department of Housing and Urban Development even investigated the city for civil rights violations because of the alleged use of this custom to block affordable housing projects in Chicago.18
According to the City of Chicago, as of July 25, 2024, the average time to obtain a building permit was 77 days: 31 days processing time and 46 days with the applicant, based on the plan-based building permits issued in the preceding two weeks.
But that number can vary wildly. For example, the average time for permits issued in the two weeks preceding December 3, 2023, took 95 days: 37 days processing time and 58 days with the applicant.19 The city notes that many permits can be issued in the same day through its Express Permit Program, covering projects such as fences, trash enclosures, masonry work, mechanical, plumbing, or HVAC work, exterior window or door replacement, nonstructural interior alterations, reroofing and erecting scaffolding.20 At the same time, the city’s average time numbers do not include developer services permits, which include most moderate to complex construction projects.21
According to data collected by Chicago Cityscape, as of July 5, 2024, the average time from application to issuance for a permit from the City of Chicago for those permits issued in the preceding 180 days was just under 108 days. The average for the 180 days before that was 112 days.22
In comparison, the average time to obtain a building permit in New York City is 1-3 months, according to permit preparation company Permit Flow.23 And according to the Dallas city website, the average permit approval time for a new single-family home was just 14 days.24
To its credit, Chicago has slowly been taking steps in the right direction, establishing programs to reduce the burden on license-seekers, and showing a wiliness to roll back policies such as aldermanic prerogative. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson convinced city council members to override an alderman’s objection to a proposed apartment complex development to be located in his ward, pushing back on the longstanding practice.25
In addition to its express program that allows same day approval, the city developed a program allowing a certified architect or structural engineer to certify a project’s compliance with the city’s building codes in 2008.26 Previously, these licensed professionals had to wait on city staff to confirm the project was in compliance before proceeding. Chicago’s self-certification process allows for a permit to be issued within 10 business days,27 much quicker than average.
Chicago’s self-certification establishes a list of eligible project categories28 as well as a list of features that disqualify a project from the program, which includes:
- Projects increasing the number of permitted residential units
- New construction or addition of education or medical care facilities
- Work involving public venues with a capacity of more than 299
- Work involving congregate living facilities
- Work involving an ambulatory care facility
- Work involving a Wrigley Field-adjacent rooftop deck
- Work involving a distillery
- Any change of occupancy other than specific circumstances
- New construction or addition resulting in a building with area exceeding 30,000 feet
- New construction over 4 stories above grade plane
- New construction or addition of a building exceeding 55 feet.
These strict limitations for eligibility prevent Chicago’s self-certification program from being as effective as it might be. Chicago should look to cities like Phoenix, Arizona for places to reform.
Phoenix29 modeled its own self-certification program after Chicago’s program, and public officials credit their program with helping the city achieve the housing boom the city has seen since it was introduced. Phoenix’s self-certification program for non-civil building plans applies to all plans except for specific cases such as hazardous projects, and new high-rise buildings above a certain height.30 Chicago’s fee for training as a self-certification professional is at least $3,500,31 more than twice the $1,500 that Phoenix charges.32
Cities as disparate as Dallas and New York City have their own self certification programs as well. While Dallas’ program only covers one and two-family units as far as residential developments are concerned, it puts no limit on square footage, and its fees to register as a self-certification professional are $500 annually.33 New York’s program covers a wide range of categories, excluding only builders pavement plans, curb-cuts, enlargements, fire alarms, Landmarks Preservation Commission calendared properties, legalizations of currently illegal buildings, post-approval amendments and subsequent filings.34 New Jersey passed a statewide self-certification law in August of 2024.35 The bill itself covers only a limited scope of renovation and remodeling projects, but the law allows the state’s Department of Community Affairs to expand the types of eligible projects through agency rulemaking so that the legislature does not have to pass a new law for every expansion of the program.36
Chicago has been on the lookout for other ways to reform the development process after the defeat of Mayor Johnson’s Real Estate Transfer Tax proposal. The Chicago mayor has since pivoted to a new plan dubbed “Cut the Tape” to attract revenue for the city. Proposals range from creating a director of process improvements for city functions to overhauling the city’s zoning code to eliminate minimum parking requirements, streamline special use permits, and expedite reviews of affordable housing projects in the city.37
The plan aims to decrease the number of steps in a given development process, reduce the time for review cycle and permit processing, reduce the number of days for turnaround of city feedback at every step of the cycle and to decrease the number of revisions required to be reviewed by city staff and resubmitted.38 While much of the plan is investigatory in nature and does not yet propose much in the way of concrete solutions, there is reason to be optimistic the initiative will lead the city in the right direction.
Permitting in Downstate Illinois
While Chicago lags other major cities in approving permits for new housing, it is doing well compared to the rest of Illinois. Unsurprisingly, Chicago approves a greater raw number of permits than any other city in Illinois due to its high population. But it also outperforms downstate Illinois on a per capita basis. In 2023, the Chicago metropolitan statistical area outperformed every other metro located primarily within Illinois in new private housing units approved per capita with the exception of the Champaign-Urbana metro area.39
This is not solely due to growth outside the city itself: those results held up when separating out the city and comparing the most populous cities in each of the six other metro areas.40 And it is not a one-year statistical fluke: The City of Chicago retained its second-place rank when comparing five-year averages from 2019 to 2023.41
Downstate Illinois doesn’t only trail Chicago – it trails the rest of the Midwest.
In 2023, 373 metro areas reported population and new housing data across the nation. The Decatur area ranked fifth-worst in the U.S. and four Illinois areas were in the bottom 20 of the country. No Illinois metro area broke into the top half.
Of the 90 metro areas located just in the Midwest, Illinois downstate metros made up three of the bottom five, and all but one of the downstate metros was in the bottom 20.
Once again, population loss does not explain and in fact reinforces the need for more new housing. Other comparable metros lost population and managed to approve more permits than downstate Illinois metros, including:
- The Decatur, Illinois, metropolitan area lost 742 people in 2023, or 0.7% of its population. But the St. Joseph, Missouri, area lost over 1,200 people – over 1% of its population – and managed to approve more than twice the number of permits per capita as Decatur.
- The Niles, Michigan, metropolitan area lost about the same percentage of its population that Springfield, Illinois, did in 2023, but Niles approve 233 new units of housing per 100,000 people while Springfield approved 120.
- The Ann Arbor, Michigan, metropolitan area lost more than double the people Bloomington, Illinois, did, but approved over three times the number of new housing units per capita.
Despite their struggle with population loss, downstate municipalities need to increase new housing development to replace housing in bad condition, deal with decreasing household sizes, and end the self-reinforcing cycle of population decline. The time it takes to obtain a building permit is increasingly becoming an issue in the ongoing housing crisis and contributes to the lack of new permit approvals in Illinois.42
One clear way to increase the number of permits approved is to make the process of obtaining a permit cheaper and easier. Illinoisans do not necessarily have to go far to find a better way to handle building permits. An example is Champaign, Illinois.
Champaign
Of the largest cities in each of Illinois’ seven metro areas, the City of Champaign, Illinois saw the greatest average number of housing permits approved per capita in Illinois from 2019 to 2023.
The city’s permitting processes may show some indication as to why.
“Building permits are processed simultaneously by three City departments in order to make the process more efficient,” the city’s website reads.
“When a building permit application is submitted to Building Safety at the Champaign Fire Department, it is separated into its component parts43 and routed to whichever individual inspectors need to review a particular application.”44
The Planning Department does the zoning review, the parking review and the landscape review. The Building Safety Division does the building review, the plumbing review, the HVAC review and the electrical review. The Engineering Division handles the engineering review, the right-of-way review, the grading and erosion review and the sump pump review. The city estimates a plan review time of 10 days after receipt of all necessary material for commercial and multi-family permits45 and five days for single and two-family permits.46
Champaign uses a formula based on the square footage, zoning group and category to calculate the building permit fee.47 The permit fee for a one or two-family dwelling is a flat fee based on the gross square footage of the property for new construction, and based on the construction costs for additions or alterations.
For a single-family house less than 2,500 gross square feet, the fee is $345. For 2,500 square feet or more, the fee is $435. For a two-family house, the fees are $375 for under 2,500 square feet and $470 for 2,500 square feet or more. Additions or alterations cost $6 for every $1,000 in construction costs, but there is a $45 minimum for all fees.
For multi-family and commercial building permit fees, Champaign follows a formula based on the building group designation, gross square footage, and location. A multifamily building can range from around $0.24 to $0.35 per gross square foot.
Decatur
By comparison, from 2019 to 2023, the city of Decatur saw the lowest average number of new units approved per capita of the largest cities in each of the 7 Illinois metros.48 It is difficult to determine the exact reason for the lack of permits from the permit process alone, but Decatur has not adopted a parallel permit review process like Champaign, much less implemented a self-certification program like Chicago.
Decatur’s fee for one or two-family residential projects is 0.5% of the project value.49 The fee for a project valued at 80% of the price of a median priced home in Illinois ($265,824)50 would be around $1,063, over twice as much as Champaign’s fee for the same home.51 The city does not list a time estimate for plan review or permit approval.
Downstate Illinois cities like Decatur should look to Champaign for ways to make their permit process more attractive to building in the city. Establishing a system for parallel processing of permits could improve turnaround time, and setting low flat fees will encourage more development. If not, establishing variable fees based on location could encourage building where it is most needed.
Conclusion
Illinois lags when it comes to housing supply, and its building permitting processes are part of the problem. Chicago is trailing other major cities in approving new housing permits, and Downstate Illinois is trailing Chicago and similarly situated cities in the Midwest. Improving the way the state deals with building permits will reduce headaches for developers and encourage more building, leading to more affordability. More affordability will help to keep people from continuing to flee the state and could even encourage residents from other states to take another look at Illinois as a place to put down roots.
Illinois cities should consider developing their own self-certification programs to allow architects and engineers to vouch for their compliance with the building code, reducing both the time to obtain a permit and for local government staff to review permit applications. Cities that go this route should follow the example of Phoenix and begin with a pilot program that covers a narrow range of projects such as small single-family homes.
Municipalities near Chicago could consider recognizing self-certification professionals certified by the City of Chicago so that they can take advantage of the existing pool of self-certification professionals and training programs. Similarly, the state should consider following New Jersey’s lead and developing a statewide program as another way local governments could opt in to without having to develop their own.
Chicago should follow the model of Phoenix and consider where the program can include more and broader categories of projects. The city should similarly look for ways to reduce the fees for the self-certification training program to make the program more attractive for smaller developers.
Illinois cities should streamline the permitting process where they can, allowing applicants to complete the process in a centralized location on the official website for as many of the steps of the process as is feasible.
Finally, cities should work to reduce permit fees to be more in line with similar cities to encourage more building in their communities. The key to increasing housing affordability is to increase the supply of housing, and the easier cities make it on builders, the more building those cities will see.
Endnotes
1 Joshua Bandoch and Joe Tabor, “Regulatory reform can make housing more affordable for Illinois families,” Illinois Policy Institute, Summer 2024, https://files.illinoispolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IPI_2024_02_PovSol-Regulatory-reform_R4.pdf.
2 Orphe Divounguy and Bryce Hill, “Blame Illinois exodus on jobs, housing, tax policy,” Illinois Policy Institute, June 25, 2020, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/blame-illinois-exodus-on-jobs-housing-tax-policy/.
3 Francis Chantree, “Where is building a home cheaper than buying? Western & South Atlantic states, with California in the lead,” StorageCafe, February 22, 2023, https://www.storagecafe.com/blog/is-it-cheaper-to-build-or-buy-a-house-in-the-us/.
4 Ibid.
5 Megan Elizabeth Shannon, “Quantifying the impacts of regulatory delay on housing affordability and quality in Austin, Texas,” PhD diss., 2015, https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/f27f6b64-bd0f-4b20-88ec-bd0dcafbce3d/content.
6 John M. Quigley and Steven Raphael, “Is housing unaffordable? Why isn’t it more affordable?,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 18, no. 1 (2004): 205, 191-214.
7 Paul Emrath, “Government Regulation in the Price of a New Home: 2021,” National Association of Home Builders (2021), https://www.nahb.org/-/media/NAHB/news-and-economics/docs/housing-economics-plus/special-studies/2021/special-study-government-regulation-in-the-price-of-a-new-home-may-2021.pdf.
8 Illinois Realtors, “Illinois home sales rose in April despite lagging inventory,” May 22, 2024, https://www.illinoisrealtors.org/blog/illinois-home-sales-rose-in-april-despite-lagging-inventory/.
9 Joe Tabor, “Phoenix’s building permit privatization could help reverse Illinois’ housing woes,” Illinois Policy Institute, May 7, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/phoenixs-building-permit-privatization-could-help-reverse-illinois-housing-woes/.
10 “Housingdata.app,” American Enterprise Institute, accessed September 19, 2023, https://heat.aeihousingcenter.org/toolkit/housing_data_app.
11 Ibid.
12 Bryce Hill, “Illinois population drops for 10th year in a row during 2023,” Illinois Policy Institute, December 19, 2023, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-population-drops-for-10th-year-in-a-row-during-2023/.
13 U.S. Census Bureau, “Selected Social Characteristics in the United States,” American Community Survey 1-year Estimates, Table DP02, 2014, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDP1Y2014.DP02?q=number%20of%20households%20illinois, accessed September 20, 2024; U.S. Census Bureau, “Selected Social Characteristics in the United States,” American Community Survey 1-year Estimates, Table DP02, 2023, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDP1Y2023.DP02?q=number%20of%20households%20illinois, accessed September 20, 2024.
14 Hans Elshof, Leo van Wissen, and Clara H. Mulder, “The self-reinforcing effects of population decline: An analysis of differences in moving behaviour between rural neighbourhoods with declining and stable populations,” Journal of Rural Studies 36 (2014): 285-299, https://pure.knaw.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/763023/2014_Elshof_ea_JRS_post_print_0054.pdf.
15 Elizabeth Milnikel and Emily Satterthwaite, “Regulatory Field: Home of Chicago Laws,” Institute for Justice (2010), https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ij-chicago_citystudy.pdf.
16 Andre Vasquez, “Getting a city permit is a nightmare. It doesn’t have to be,” Crain’s Chicago Business, July 2, 2019, https://www.chicagobusiness.com/lightfoot-100/getting-city-permit-nightmare-it-doesnt-have-be.
17 Stephen Goldsmith, ed., “Chicago Licensing and Permitting Reform,” Harvard Kennedy School: Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation (2015), https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/datasmart/files/chicago_licensing_and_permitting_reform.pdf.
18 Brett Chase, “Chicago wrongly limited affordable housing with aldermanic prerogative, HUD says,” Chicago Sun-Times, November 28, 2023, https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2023/11/28/23979913/aldermanic-prerogative-affordable-housing-hud-chicago-discrimination.
19 “Buildings,” City of Chicago, archived January 19, 2024, at the Wayback Machine, https://web.archive.org/web/20240119114051/https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/bldgs.html.
20 “Express Permit Program,” City of Chicago, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/bldgs/provdrs/permits/svcs/express-permits.html, accessed September 20, 2024.
21 “Developer Services Permit Program,” City of Chicago, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/bldgs/provdrs/permits/svcs/dev-services.html, accessed September 20, 2024.
22 “Building Permits Browser,” Chicago Cityscape, archived July 5, 2024, at the Wayback Machine, https://web.archive.org/web/20240705083924/https://www.chicagocityscape.com/permits.php.
23 Sam Lam, “NYC Building Permits Guide,” PermitFlow, August 2, 2024, https://www.permitflow.com/blog/nyc-building-permits-guide.
24 “City of Dallas Permits: New single family dwelling,” City of Dallas, https://dallascitydata.dallascityhall.com/views/SingleFamilyResidentialPermits_16747435220440/SingleFamilyResidentialPermits, accessed September 20, 2024.
25 Benjamin O’Donnell, “Chicago mayor challenges aldermanic privilege to fix housing, July 17, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-mayor-challenges-aldermanic-privilege-to-fix-housing/.
26 Joe Tabor, “What does it take to get a building permit in Chicago?” Illinois Policy Institute, June 20, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/what-does-it-take-to-get-a-building-permit-in-chicago/.
27 “Self-Certification Permit Program, City of Chicago, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/bldgs/provdrs/permits/svcs/self-cert-permits.html, accessed September 20, 2024.
28 City of Chicago Department of Buildings, Rules for the Self-Certified Permit Application Program (Chicago, 2024), https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/dol/rulesandregs/SelfCerPermitProgram.pdf.
29 Tabor, “Phoenix’s building permit privatization could help reverse Illinois’ housing woes.”
30 City of Phoenix Planning & Development Department, Self-Certification – Rules and Regulations (Phoenix, 2024), 6, https://www.phoenix.gov/pddsite/documents/trt/dsd_trt_pdf_00523.pdf.
31 City of Chicago Department of Buildings, Rules for the Self-Certified Permit Application Program, 15.
32 City of Phoenix Planning & Development Department, Fee Schedule (Phoenix, 2011), 34, https://www.phoenix.gov/pddsite/Documents/TRT/dsd_trt_pdf_00042.pdf.
33 City of Dallas Development Services, Service First Bulletin #103: Self Certification Plan Review Program (Dallas, 2024), 2, https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopment/DCH%20documents/Service_First_Bulletin_103-Self-Certification.pdf.
34 “The Hub,” NYC Buildings, https://www.nyc.gov/site/buildings/industry/the-hub.page, accessed September 20, 2024.
35 New Jersey Design Professional Self Certification Act, P.L.2024, c.58.
36 Ibid.
37 Office of the Mayor, City of Chicago, Cut the Tape: An initial report on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s initiative to streamline and expedite housing and commercial development processes, based on Executive Order 2023-21, (Chicago, 2024), 35-49, https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/sites/cut-the-tape/pdfs/Cut-the-Tape-Report-2024.pdf.
38 Ibid.
39 “HousingData.app,” American Enterprise Institute, https://heat.aeihousingcenter.org/toolkit/housing_data_app.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid.
42 National Association of Home Builders, Blueprint to Address the Housing Affordability Crisis: Alleveing Permitting Roadblocks (2024), https://www.nahb.org/-/media/NAHB/advocacy/docs/top-priorities/blueprint/permitting-roadblocks.pdf?rev=938d30eda89844e5afb0e8891fc2ee74.
43 “Commercial and Multifamily Permit Information,” City of Champaign, https://champaignil.gov/fire/building-safety/commercial-and-multi-family-permits-and-inspections/, accessed September 20, 2024.
44 “Building Permits,” City of Champaign, https://champaignil.gov/fire/building-safety/building-permit-applications/, accessed September 20, 2024.
45 “Commercial and Multifamily Permit Information,” City of Champaign.
46 “One and Two Family Permit Information,” City of Champaign, https://champaignil.gov/fire/building-safety/one-and-two-family-permits-and-inspections/, accessed September 20, 2024.
47Joe Tabor, Downstate areas lag Chicago, Midwest, in house building permits, Illinois Policy Institute, July 22, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/downstate-areas-lag-chicago-midwest-in-house-building-permits/.
48 See graphic X, supra.
49 City of Decatur, Illinois, Building Inspections Division, Permit Fee Schedule (Decatur, 2020), https://www.decaturil.gov/DocumentCenter/View/798/Building-Permit-Fee-Schedule-PDF.
50 “Illinois, Nation’s 13th Highest Avg Construction Cost per New Residential Unit,” The Neighbor, July 29, 2024, https://www.mdjonline.com/neighbor_newspapers/extra/news/illinois-nations-13th-highest-avg-construction-cost-per-new-residential-unit/article_f3a26142-a461-5150-9e99-aaf37ffa8c77.html.
51 City of Decatur, Illinois, Permit Fee Schedule.