C3-5 Commercial, Manufacturing and Employment District
Commercial, manufacturing and employment uses, intended to buffer manufacturing areas from other districts. Does NOT permit residential dwelling units.
Example on a 120 × 200 ft lot. The dashed box is the maximum zoning envelope, the buildable footprint after setbacks, raised to the 80 ft height limit. The solid building is an illustrative example: a uniform 5-story mass spanning the full lot (no setback or stepback anywhere), reaching exactly FAR 5 at the 80 ft height limit. Each upper floor's rear half stays blank, signaling parking-garage space reached from the ground-floor garage bay, while the front half stays glazed office/commercial space with a secondary side entrance at the bay's edge. C3 permits no residential use, so it reads as mid-rise flex-commercial/light-industrial: continuous ribbon windows and spandrel panels, no unit-scale glazing, flush to the lot line rather than apartments over a storefront.
Specifications
- Zoning Ordinance reference
- §17-3-0107
View in the Chicago Zoning Ordinance - Floor area ratio (FAR)
- 5
- Maximum building height
- Varies by lot frontage and whether the building has ground-floor commercial space. §17-3-0408.
- Lot area per unit (density)
- No residential density standard (C3 permits no dwelling units).
- Minimum lot area
- —
- Rear yard open space
- —
- On-site open space
- —
- Parking requirements
- No dwelling-unit parking ratio applies — C3 permits no residential use. Its office/retail/manufacturing uses are instead governed by the Ch. 17-10 non-residential parking table, based on gross floor area and use category rather than a unit count.
Setbacks
- Front yard
- None required, unless the property borders an R-zoned lot — then at least 50% of that lot's front setback. §17-3-0404.
- Side yard
- None required, unless the property borders an R-zoned lot — then that lot's front setback applies.
- Rear yard
- None required — C3 permits no dwelling units, so the 30 ft dwelling-unit trigger never applies.
Allowed Uses
Curated from the §17-3-0207 use table. P = permitted by-right; S = special-use approval required. Always confirm against the full ordinance text.
- General retail; limited & general restaurants; taverns
- Liquor store; offices; medical & financial services
- Full motor-vehicle uses (sales, heavy-equipment, storage, towing, repair)
- Manufacturing/production: artisan, limited & broader industrial (C3 distinction — buffer to M)
- Contractor storage yard; building-material sales; urban farm
- Day-labor & employment agencies; cabaret
- NO residential dwelling units permitted (C3 distinction)
- Indoor & outdoor participant sports; medium venues
- Drive-through facilities; gas stations
- Adult use; flea market; pawn shop; payday/title loan
- Colleges/universities; detention facilities; cremating
- Outdoor vehicle storage & towing; large venues (PD)
Reference figures are modeled from the Chicago Zoning Ordinance (Title 17) for general guidance and do not constitute zoning or legal advice. Lot-specific limits depend on frontage, depth, adjacencies and overlays — analyze a specific address for exact figures. Always confirm against the official ordinance.