Skokie, IL Building Safety: Anti-Mansionization (2026)

Skokie's zoning code addresses outsized new construction, sometimes called mansionization, through the bulk limits in Sec. 118-124(8) and (9) for the R1 Single-Family district rather than a standalone anti-mansionization ordinance. Subsection (8) caps the maximum land coverage of the principal and accessory buildings combined at 40 percent of the lot area, meaning a house, garage, and any other structures on an R1 lot cannot together occupy more than four-tenths of the property regardless of how the remaining yard requirements are met. 6, meaning the total floor area of all buildings and structures on the lot cannot exceed 60 percent of the lot's square footage across every story, which restrains a multi-story rebuild from packing height-driven bulk onto a smaller footprint.

These two caps operate together with the lot-width-scaled height limits in subsection (3), the front, side and rear yard minimums in subsections (5) through (7), and the minimum lot area and width standards in subsections (1) and (2), so a builder cannot use a taller structure or narrower yards to exceed the Village's intended bulk envelope for a single-family lot. The current version of Sec. 118-124 traces to Ord. No. 13-10-C-4010, adopted October 7, 2013, and was last amended by Ord. No. 19-4-C-4451 on April 15, 2019, both part of a broader zoning rewrite that restructured the residential district bulk standards found in Article VI of the Village of Skokie, Cook County, Illinois code.