A former Chicago zoning official has pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy, admitting he took thousands of dollars in payoffs over three years for overlooking city code violations and other favors.

Former zoning investigator William Wellhausen admitted to federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow on Tuesday that he took a wide array of payoffs.

But he pleaded guilty to a single charge of taking $8,000 from building owners seeking approval to squeeze extra units into an apartment house basement.

Wellhausen also agreed to cooperate in the investigation in exchange for a lenient sentence of 15 months. The maximum on the charge is five years.