CHICAGO—The City of Chicago's 2013 transit-oriented development ordinance has accomplished its goal of kicking off the construction of many new residential buildings on once-vacant or under-utilized land. But one of the city's most active TOD developers tells GlobeSt.com that from now on, it's going to be tougher to take advantage of the law.

"We tied up a lot of our assets a year and a half ago to acquire transit-oriented sites," says John McLinden of Centrum Partners. "We got way out in front," and the Chicago-based company now has has more than half a dozen TOD projects in its pipeline, including ones in Wicker Park, Lakeview and Old Irving Park. "But because the market has improved, you will now be paying some pretty hefty prices for any half-acre or acre located next to a train station. There are obviously a lot of great neighborhoods, and there is tremendous demand, but I can tell you that finding a site where you can do something of scale is difficult these days."

The ordinance reduced the amount of parking that developers had to provide for new residential buildings constructed next to transit stations. Previously, builders had to include a parking space for each unit, but "the market demand for parking spaces is somewhat less," McLinden adds, usually about 30 to 40 spaces for every 100 units, at least for developments in walkable neighborhoods. Therefore, the law allowed greater density and let developers use the extra space for amenities including retail. "The Chicago market was heating up anyway, and it was particularly strong in the neighborhoods that have great transit hubs."