Part seven of an ongoing series on the development of the CMAP (formerly 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.
The Strategic Plan
Almost one year after it was
created by the Ill. General Assembly to coordinate regional land use and
transportation planning by consolidating the Chicago Area Transportation Study
(CATS) and Northeastern Illinois Planning Council (NIPC), the Chicago
Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP - formerly known as the Regional
Planning Board) has reached a major milestone in making critical decisions about
how it will lead the coordination of regional and state investments in land use
and transportation projects. The CMAP board voted unanimously in late August to
submit its required strategic report to the
Illinois
general assembly on September 1,
2006.
But there is no time to sit back
and enjoy this accomplishment. CMAP still has a great deal of work ahead.
Perhaps most importantly, the board has yet to iron out of the exact
relationship between the CMAP board and the metropolitan planning organization
for the region, which will continue to be the group formerly known as the CATS
policy committee. The metropolitan planning organization is mandated by law to
approve transportation projects submitted to the federal government for funding.
CMAP is currently in negotiations with the former CATS policy committee over the
development of a joint memorandum of understanding to specify how to handle the
decision making process.
It is critical that the
effectiveness of CMAP not be diluted by an approval process for plans and
capital funding that continues to stovepipe transportation and land use
investments. A debilitating process could easily compromise the mandate to truly
coordinate land use and transportation planning and investments that the general
assembly created by passing the Regional Planning Act.
Next steps
MPC and a team of volunteer
experts from around the region did extensive outreach to the CMAP board and
staff leading up to the submission of the report, and will continue to reach out
to them. View our recommendations here:
- May 2006 recommendations to the Planning &
Priorities committee.
- Letters of note to the CMAP board.
- Feedback
on the August 2006 draft strategic report.
Though CMAP has taken an
impressive first step towards becoming an effective device to coordinate land
use and transportation planning and investments by submitting a solid strategic
report, it still has its hardest work ahead. Through legislation, contracts,
basic operations, and outreach, the agency must turn the pleasing rhetoric in
the strategic report into a functioning agency. CMAP is planning on using the
fall legislative veto session to pass technical legislation to clean up the
Regional Planning Act, which created the agency. Meanwhile, CMAP is already
working with legislators on setting up hearings on the strategic report for the
winter. The hearings will hopefully create the support needed to pass any
additional legislation needed, including funding appropriations, in Spring
2007.
Click
here to read the CMAP final
strategic report.
Click
here to read the rest of
the "Make or Break" series.