People Behind the Plans: Kelwin Harris

Certain concepts in the planning sphere can be hard to make
tangible for residents, but property taxes is not one of them.
Kelwin Harris knows this reality well. As the director of
outreach and engagement for the Office of the Cook County
Assessor — which is responsible for valuing 1.8 million
properties for tax purposes in and around Chicago — he and his
team have been eagerly getting out the word that the the office,
with all its political baggage, is changing. It’s committed to
transparency and efficiency, including seeking better, more
accurate data through SB1379, or the Data Modernization Bill,
which would eventually reduce the backlog of appeals currently
burdening the system.


Before he went to work for the Office of the Assessor, Kelwin
worked in various capacities at the city and regional levels and
in grassroots neighborhood economic development. He is a former
senior outreach planner for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for
Planning (CMAP), and prior to CMAP, he worked on Chicago’s South
Side in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood as director of social
services with St. Sabina Church and Catholic Charities. He held
numerous roles in this community, directing programs and
interventions to improve job skills, address food insecurity,
combat violence, expose youth to colleges, and provide financial
assistance for thousands of residents. He even served the City of
Chicago as assistant to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and acting
chief of human infrastructure. Many lessons he learned in his
previous roles and through his previous experiences make their
way into his conversation with podcast host Courtney Kashima,
AICP: how communities get the development they actually want, why
the South Side of Chicago is far more multifaceted than its media
portrayal, and how the Wu-Tang Clan helped a young Kelwin plug in
to the world beyond his window.