Building and License Enforcement

The division attorneys prosecute in the following practice areas: Administrative Hearings/Buildings; Conservation; License Enforcement; Troubled Buildings to include Drug and Gang House and Demolition; and Zoning. Due to the public safety component to these prosecutions, there are often daily emergencies that need to be addressed immediately to protect the health and safety of the public. Significant matters are in constant change as the emergencies are resolved and new ones arise. 

Administrative Hearings

Administrative Hearings/Buildings processes 25,000 building code violations per year. The Fire Department and the Department of Health - Lead Abatement Program direct routine code violation cases to this section. The section staffs court calls in administrative adjudication courtrooms to assist and prosecute difficult cases which are referred by the Building Department such as heat cases, high rise violations, illegal conversions, Strategic Task force inspections, exterior wall cases, and all fire and lead paint abatement cases referred to DAH by the Fire and Health Departments respectively.

Gang House/Troubled Buildings Unit The Drug and Gang House Section of the Troubled Buildings Unit, works in conjunction with the Chicago Police Department to investigate and prosecute property owners who permit or encourage criminal activity to occur on their property.  Attorneys review the police reports, meet with potential witnesses and visit the subject property with police personnel in order to determine which cases to prosecute.  Attorneys also meet with community groups to determine which properties harbor criminal activity in their neighborhood.  The Department of Buildings conducts inspections on all problem buildings referred by police for Drug and Gang House prosecution.  Prosecutors file cases against property owners in either Administrative Hearings or Circuit court and seek, not only fines, but abatement measures to curb crime at the property.

Demolition Section (Troubled Buildings Unit) The Demolition Section of the Troubled Buildings Unit works in conjunction with the Departments of Buildings, Housing, and Police in an effort to identify and abate vacant and deteriorated properties throughout the City of Chicago. The section prepares and prosecutes civil complaints in the Circuit Court of Cook County against the owners of vacant buildings that fail to meet minimum Municipal Code requirements and/or present a safety threat to the surrounding community. Typically, the City's requested relief in these actions would be the imposition of a monetary fine, and either the appointment of a Receiver to complete a renovation of the target property, or an order authorizing the City to demolish the structure, with any costs incurred to be assessed as a lien. The Demolition Unit also prosecutes citations issued by the Chicago Police to the owners of vacant and accessible properties at the City's Department of Administrative Hearings.

Conservation Group

The mission of the Conservation Group is to conserve existing buildings, to compel responsible property ownership and the transfer of ownership and to stem the tide of housing abandonment.  Conservation also works to promote real estate development in conformity with minimum standards of health and safety.

This section works with the following City Departments in its code enforcement responsibilities: Department of Buildings, Fire Department, Department of Health, Department of Streets and Sanitation, Department of Human Services, the Police Department and the Department Housing and Economic Development. 

Conservation’s mission promotes the quality of life in City neighborhoods by proactive enforcement work in the conservation of buildings. The Conservation section is charged to investigate land use issues and social policies and formulate innovative legal initiatives against delinquent landlords and property owners within the City of Chicago.  The section maintains a full docket of injunction and civil penalty actions to enforce a wide range of laws, including the City's building, fire, electrical, health and building ordinances. Conservation attorneys continue to obtain several hundred permanent injunctions and generate increasingly significant revenues through fines and liens collected, improve the City's quality of life through properties brought into compliance with City codes, and advance the City's redevelopment through properties acquired and placed in productive use.

The cases handled by this section often have a broad impact on the lives of the people of the City of Chicago. For example, the section brings suit against property owners who maintain dangerous, hazardous and unsafe buildings which threaten the public health and safety and decrease property values in the community. Attorneys frequently act on short notice and file emergency actions seeking board up, clean-up orders, and increasingly must act on short notice to protect the public from crumbling facades or windows under the Exterior Wall Ordinance. The section also increasingly works on task force initiatives to stop the growing number of illegal conversions that present fire and other safety hazards in residential communities. The attorneys also work with task force initiatives to stop the growing number of illegal conversions and condominium properties that have fallen into disrepair due to fraud and neglect and that present fire and other safety hazards to residential communities. Attorneys diligently work with community groups and City agencies to reclaim and revitalize City neighborhoods.

License Enforcement Unit

The License Enforcement Unit prosecutes license violation cases before the Local Liquor Control Commission, the License Appeal Commission and the Circuit Court of Cook County Chancery Division.

Zoning Unit

The Zoning Unit enforces the Zoning Ordinance (Title 17 of the Municipal Code of Chicago) in Circuit Court and at the Department of Administrative Hearings. Enforcement actions seek injunctive relief and/or civil penalties for violations of the Zoning Ordinance, such as, illegal conversions, illegal signs, non-permitted business activities,  off-street parking and landscape violations. The Zoning Unit works in conjunction with the Department Housing and Economic Development on various Zoning initiatives, such as the illegal conversion task force and also coordinates prosecutions with the Departments of Environment, Buildings and Business Affairs and Licensing. Zoning attorneys also provide advice and counsel to the Zoning Administrator on a variety of legal issues.

In addition to prosecutorial work, attorneys in the Zoning Unit often defend the City in complex litigation brought in the Chancery Division seeking mandamus, declaratory judgments and injunctive relief for the City’s failure to issue building permits, zoning certificates or certificates of occupancy.