If you’re among the thousands of Chicago renters who prefer high-rise living, you’ll be glad to know that the city has posted fire safety information online for hundreds of older residential towers.

The step was taken in the wake of a Lake Shore Drive high-rise fire in December that took the life of a young woman. The owners of the building where she lived had not submitted an acceptable plan to the city that would meet tougher safety standards enacted after a 2003 fire killed six people locked in a stairwell in the Cook County Administration Building.

The decision to post the reports online came as a result of a Chicago Tribune investigation that revealed more than half of the high-rises built before 1975 – or 369 – still hadn’t submitted plans that met city approval, nor had they made the necessary improvements required under a 2004 ordinance. Owners of high-rises built before 1975 are not required to install sprinklers but can enact other improvements that make them compliant.

While fire safety standards for high-rises have been toughened in recent years, enforcement has been weighed down by bureaucracy.

After the woman’s death in December, the city sent letters to owners of the older high-rises, urging them to speed up their fire upgrades and giving them a deadline. The city also did its part by streamlining its permitting process, so all approved fire-related improvements in high-rises can be completed more quickly.