Earlier this month at the Boneyard Arts Festival, CUrbanism Club opened an exhibit called “The Policy of Possibility.” The question on its walls was simple: “What would our city look like if we chose abundance?”

Among the attendees who came to consider it were state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, and state Sen. Paul Faraci, D-Champaign, whose constituents across East Central Illinois are feeling the weight of housing costs and broader affordability pressures.

That question belongs to them as much as it belongs to us. Champaign’s housing shortage is Illinois’ housing shortage, and no city can solve it alone.

Champaign has done more than most. The city eliminated parking minimums in downtown, Midtown and Campustown in 2015, and in the seven years that followed, 43 major developments took advantage of the change, avoiding roughly 2,250 excess parking spaces and redirecting an estimated $43 million to $49 million into housing, retail and design quality.

In 2022, the city council legalized accessory dwelling units citywide. Right now, the council is taking up the next round of incremental development reforms. This is a city with genuine will and a clear direction of travel.

And it has taken more than a decade to get here. The city’s latest Housing Needs Analysis calls for 7,000 new units by 2035 to meet growing demand, roughly two new homes every day between now and then. Even at full local ambition, Champaign covers a tiny fraction of the 227,000 units Illinois needs in the next five years.

Most cities in the state are not having this conversation at all, and Illinoisans know it. In a recent YouGov poll, 82 percent said the Legislature should act on housing costs, and 65 percent prioritized building more homes over preserving local control.

That is what the BUILD plan, currently before the General Assembly, is designed to do. In plain language, BUILD legalizes accessory dwelling units, allows increased density on residential lots depending on lot size, makes permitting faster and more predictable, and puts $250 million into down-payment assistance, infrastructure and development. It does not override local design standards or safety rules.

More homes in the market means less competition for the ones at the bottom of the price range, and that is where the shortage hits hardest. Every dollar dedicated to affordable-housing programs goes further when overall price pressure comes down. It removes some of the most restrictive barriers to housing development so no city or its residents are a decade behind.

One common objection is that this is just a Chicago problem. It is not. Champaign needs 7,000 homes of its own, and small cities across Illinois are watching listings shrink, rents rise and young families leave for states that build.

Montana, whose politics look nothing like Illinois’, passed a comparable package in 2023, saw it upheld by its state supreme court in 2024 and expanded it in 2025. If common-sense housing reform is possible in Billings, it is possible in Champaign-Urbana too.

BUILD is not a magic fix. It is the first one that actually operates at the scale of the problem. The question our exhibit asked was what would happen if we chose abundance. The question before our state legislators is whether residents in the rest of Illinois get to experience abundance with us, or get stuck holding the bag.

Contact your state senator and representative. Ask them to vote yes on BUILD. (The BUILD Plan contains multiple introduced bills: House Bill 5626 and Senate Bills 4060, 4061, 4062, 4063, 4064 and 4071.)

Jared Fritz is a Champaign resident and a lead member of CUrbanism Club.