The sixth in the series: Get to know the Regional Planning Board
For years, neighboring communities have had to
compete with each other to attract the most tax dollars, often at the expense of
local quality of life, economic development, school excellence, personal and
social health, and basic needs like water and sewage. While some competition
among municipalities is healthy, it’s become increasingly clear that any local
victories are fleeting; we’re racing our neighbors to the bottom as long as we
allow our region to fragment and decay. Thankfully, Chicagoland has an historic
opportunity to unite and regain our competitive edge through the development of
a strong Regional Planning Board. The state legislature has given the board just
one year to develop a plan for success. This series, “Make or Break – Year One
of the Regional Planning Board” analyzes the issues the board must tackle in the
months ahead.
Get to Know the Regional Planning Board
On April 12,
the Regional Planning Board announced it had hired Randall Blankenhorn to be
the executive director of the new organization. MPC congratulates the
Regional Planning Board for its swift action in finding and hiring a skilled
executive director. Blankenhorn will bring a great deal of experience working on a
wide variety of transportation and land use planning projects to the daily
operations of the Regional Planning Board.
The hiring of Blankenhorn
is the board’s latest step in solidifying its basic structure. Over the last
six months, members have been appointed, organized into committees, brought on
consultants to support the transition decision, moved the CATS and NIPC staffs
into one office, hired an executive director, and begun reviewing applications
for membership on its Citizens Advisory Committee.
The next steps for securing the basic structure
of the organization include selecting members of the Citizens Advisory Committee,
deciding on the composition of the federally mandated metropolitan
planning organization (MPO) that must be part of the board, and
solidifying its committee and staff structure.
Get to know the current structure
of the board with this helpful chart of the temporary board structure:
Transitional Organization Chart
Click here for an enlarged version of this chart.
The following is available at the Regional Planning
Board Web site at www.rpbchicago.org:
Information on Randall Blankenhorn, executive director of the Regional
Planning Board.
Information on the board and its
committees, including their responsibilities.
News release about the Citizens
Advisory Committee.
Click
here to read the rest of the "Make or Break" series.