After Setbacks, Chicago Infrastructure Trust Approves 1st Project

After months of delays, the Chicago Infrastructure Trust voted Tuesday to approve its first project, a plan that would tap a private investor to pay for energy efficiency improvements in 75 city buildings.

The proposal also must gain approval from the City Council, and the trust still has to select an investor and settle on the final financial terms.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel convinced the City Council to create the trust in April 2012 as a way for the city to seek private investment for projects it could not afford to fund through its budget or traditional borrowing. But the trust's first project has had a hard time getting off the ground and its scope has been narrowed.