 Chicago Metropolis 2020, a nonprofit organization established by the Commercial Club of Chicago in 1999 to promote better regional planning and smart investments consistent with the regions long-term health, has released The Metropolis Plan: Choices for the Chicago Region. In addition to reviewing the community-consultation process used by Chicago Metropolis 2020 to solicit citizen preferences for the regions future development, The Metropolis Plan lays out a strategy for metropolitan-wide visioning based on the consideration of multiple scenarios or alternative futures with business as usual (i.e., dispersed, low-density development, or sprawl) at one extreme, and a multiple-nucleus network of compact, regional cities at the other.
Interestingly, the Commercial Club of Chicago is the same organization that commissioned Daniel Burnhams famous Plan for Chicago in 1909. Implementation of that groundbreaking plan cemented Chicago as a regional center of commerce, culture, population, and innovation. However, where the 1909 document advocated interventions in the form of hydrological, construction and transportation engineering, The Metropolis Plan emphasizes innovations in public policies and private incentives that provide more and better choices for the citizens of [the Chicago] region.
The Metropolis Plan is the result of a four-month research project consisting of town meetings and a survey of 1,450 residents of the six-county metropolitan area. The project was self-consciously conceived not to tell people how they should live, but to listen to how people would like to live and then help them get there. Based on data collected by the project team, a number of shared regional goals were identified, including 1) new development should make efficient use of existing infrastructure, 2) the region should improve its efficiency in moving people and goods, 3) people throughout the region should have access to affordable housing, good jobs and good schools, and 4) residents of all income levels should have access to clean air, water and meaningful opportunities to enjoy the outdoors.
Indicators employed by the project include time spent by motorists in traffic jams and trends in agricultural land consumption. Project planners then used computer models to measure how those indicators would be affected by the year 2030, depending on the policy choices adopted by the region. This approach compares the outcomes of a business as usual scenario to the outcomes of more sensible regional policies as embodied by The Metropolis Plan, given projections that the metropolitan areas population will increase by 1.6 million residents. (Charles Wheelan of Chicago Metropolis 2020 will discuss the indicators portion of this project at the upcoming National Stewardship Forum in St. Louissee the opening story of this newsletter.)
The reports definition of a healthy region is expansive, embracing not only affordable housing, access to jobs and ease of circulation, but also urban design that promotes walkability through the co-mingling of land uses. Moreover, the document calls upon the Chicago business community to embrace these principles by pledging that future business-location decisions will take into account access to public transit and affordable workforce housing.
The report is not without its recommendations for major investments in traditional infrastructure improvements. These include the expansion of OHare International Airport with improved interstate highway access, the construction of a new south suburban airport, and the construction of a new toll highway, among other projects.
Finally, The Metropolis Plan: Choices for the Chicago Region includes a compact disk containing the full text of the report in addition to detailed technical data, an atlas of regional maps, a Powerpoint presentation on the planning process and document, an executive summary, and policy recommendations for realizing the reports vision for affordable workforce housing. The CD is easy to run (much of the content is in Acrobat-readable pdf form) and offers an enriching complement to the printed report.
For more information, or to obtain a copy of the report, visit: www.chicagometropolis2020.org or metropolisplan.org.
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