Department of Planning and Development – BGA Policy 2025 Budget Snapshot

Departmental Highlights

Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2024 Budget

• DPD's total appropriations are down -34.4% from what was budgeted in the 2024 appropriations ordinance. However, retroactive changes made to the 2024 appropriations data in the 2025 dataset by the Office of Budget and Management include millions of dollars of negative 2024 appropriations, reducing the apparent year-over-year difference to almost zero. OBM has not responded to BGA Policy inquiries about the retroactive negative appropriations changes.
  
• As with several other departments, DPD's budget includes a "reserve balance" appropriation from a number of grant funds. This appropriation, which appears in several department's budgets and has been retroactively added to 2024 appropriations data as well, was not used in the previous year's budget at the time of its passage. BGA Policy has reached out to the Office of Budget and Management for clarification of this appropriation's purpose and has not yet received a reply.
  
• DPD staffing stayed relatively level, down a net four positions from the previous year. Retitling accounted for the majority of the changes in budgeted positions.
  
• As in the previous year's budget, rehabilitation loans and grants made up the bulk of the department's appropriations. This year's appropriation of $89.6 million, down $55.7 million from the previous year, was still the department's largest appropriation by far.
  
• As of October 28, 2024, when the city's new ARPA dashboard was made available, DPD had allocated $40.6 million in ARPA funds, of which $37.4 million have been obligated and $27.5 million spent.

Historical Context

Rahm Emanuel replaced the then-Department of Housing with the Department of Planning and Development in the 2014 budget, at a lower rate of funding than its predecessor. (Housing had $191.7m in appropriations in the 2013 budget; DPD began its existence in the 2014 budget with $153.8m.)

The Department of Housing returned to city budgets in the 2019 budget and resumed operating as an independent office under Lori Lightfoot's administration. In the 2019 budget, DPD's budget dropped from $189.2m the previous year to $35.1m, while the newly-returned DoH received $148.4m.

DPD then saw significant budget increases in the pandemic-era budgets, more than doubling its post-split appropriation. As pandemic funding expires, the department's overall budget has begun to decline dramatically, down -34.3% in overall appropriations this year from 2024.

DPD staffing stayed relatively level, down a net four positions from the previous year. Retitling accounted for the majority of the changes in budgeted positions.

Appropriations

Because of retroactive changes to 2024 appropriations data made by the Department of Planning and Development, funding levels appear relatively similar, with DPD relying slightly less this year on federal, local, and pandemic relief funds and more on the neighborhoods opportunity, TIF financing administration, and CDBG funds.

Largest Appropriations

As in the previous year's budget, rehabilitation loans and grants made up the bulk of the department's appropriations. This year's appropriation of $89.6 million, down $55.7 million from the previous year, was still the department's largest appropriation by far.

As with several other departments, DPD's budget includes a "reserve balance" appropriation from a number of grant funds. This appropriation, which appears in several department's budgets and has been retroactively added to 2024 appropriations data as well, was not used in the previous year's budget at the time of its passage. BGA Policy has reached out to the Office of Budget and Management for clarification of this appropriation's purpose and has not yet received a reply.

Change from Previous Year

DPD's total appropriations are down -34.4% from what was budgeted in the 2024 appropriations ordinance. However, retroactive changes made to the 2024 appropriations data in the 2025 dataset by the Office of Budget and Management include millions of dollars of negative 2024 appropriations, reducing the apparent year-over-year difference to almost zero.

OBM has not responded to BGA Policy inquiries about the retroactive negative appropriations changes.

Rehabilitation loans and grants saw the largest single-category budget cut at -$55,7, a -38.3% reduction from the previous year. Professional and technical services appropriations are down -$7.6 million, a -55.4% reduction.

ARPA Allocations

The city budget does not typically break down budget appropriations to the programmatic level. However, this year the Office of Budget and Management has made available a new ARPA dashboard and associated datasets that detail the allocations, obligations, and expenditures made towards ARPA-funded programs.

As of October 28, 2024, when the city's new ARPA dashboard was made available, DPD had allocated $40.6 million in ARPA funds, of which $37.4 million have been obligated and $27.5 million spent.

The Vacant Lot Reduction Strategy program has the largest remaining pool of unobligated funds in its allocation, followed by the Management and Administration and Community Wealth Building: Start-ups allocations.

No DPD ARPA programs are currently fully expended.

ARPA funds must be obligated by December 31, 2024. The city can obligate funds by entering a contract, order for services, or similar award or transaction; by entering into an interagency agreement; by dedicating the funds to certain personnel costs for positions that existed and were filled prior to December 31, 2024; or by using them to cover the legal or administrative costs of ARPA itself.

As of the October 28, 2024 data, the city had allocated roughly $1.9 billion in ARPA funds, of which 91.8%, roughly $1.7 billion, had been obligated.

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