Calumet Area Land Use Plan Revitalizing Calumet Region
(
Chicago )…. For more than a century, the Calumet
region
on
Chicago’s Southeast Side has struggled to support an odd intermingling of industry
and wildlife. Hulking factories and belching smoke stacks dot the landscape,
in stark contrast to the Calumet region’s softer role as steward of
the
Midwest’s largest collection of wetlands.
Yet
until recently, no guiding principles existed to determine best uses for the
area’s land and waterways. Opportunities were squandered and quality of life
gradually diminished for nearly half a million residents, 5,000 businesses, and
countless plant and animal species that call the
Calumet
region home.
Then in the late 1990s, the City of Chicago Department of
Planning and Development (DPD) began work on a comprehensive, thoughtful plan to
revive the Calumet region. With input from business people, community leaders,
environmentalists and residents, DPD released the Calumet Area Land Use
Plan
in 2001.
“This is the first time in history that
the
Calumet region is building for the future around a focused mission:
comprehensive sustainable development of industrial and natural spaces,”
said Peter
Skosey, Metropolitan Planning Council’s (MPC)
vice president of external relations.
Indeed, signs of new life indicate that the plan is an
early success, earning the City of Chicago Department of Planning and
Development MPC’s 2004 Burnham Award for Excellence in Planning for its
Calumet Area Land Use Plan
.
This is not the first time planners have directed their
attention toward the Calumet region. That distinction belongs to none other than
Daniel Burnham, for whom MPC’s Burnham Award is named. In his 1909 Plan for
Chicago
, Burnham dreamed of turning
the
Calumet region’s large swamps into a park
system, connecting to industrial districts and the city via new roads. Burnham’s
plan reclaimed Lake Michigan’s shoreline for the public and proposed many
of
Chicago’s current parks and boulevards, but his
ideas for the
Calumet
region were unrealized –
until DPD took up his torch.
“We truly worked in the spirit of Daniel Burnham, who
advised Chicagoans at the turn of the century to ‘make no small plans,’” said
DPD Commissioner Denise Casalino. “The Calumet Area Land Use Plan
is huge, and its results can already be
measured in new job opportunities at the Ford Motor plant and acres of natural
space restored to the public.”
In addition to meeting with focus groups, planners also researched the
community’s rich history. Long
before
Chicago was
settled, the Calumet marshes connected more than 40,000 acres of wetlands and prairies
in
Illinois and
northwest
Indiana. The dawn of the
industrial age in the mid-19
th
century greatly altered this lush
landscape. Throughout most of the 1900s, steel dominated the area; by the ’70s,
steel production began to falter. Mill closings put thousands out of work,
sending the community into an economic tailspin. By then, 130 years of
industrial waste had accumulated, polluting the land and waters to the point
that the
Grand
Calumet
River
could not support sludge worms,
which typically thrive even in inhospitable waters.
“Most people see the Calumet region as a land of
abandoned steel mills and smokestacks, but what they don’t know is that the area
still has wetlands and natural areas,” said Joyce O’Keefe, policy director and
associate director of Openlands Project, a nonprofit that partnered with DPD to
produce the Calumet Area Land Use Plan
. “This
plan isn’t about economic development at the expense of the environment. DPD
recognized that it’s time to create a new vision for the community and restoring
its natural lands plays an important part in it.”
To
lay the groundwork for a new era of thoughtful planning in the
Calumet
region, DPD partnered with the city’s Department
of Environment and three nongovernmental organizations: Southeast Chicago
Development Commission, Calumet Area Industrial Commission, and Openlands
Project. Grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service helped fund the initiative. To
support the plan’s economic goals, DPD implemented an industrial Tax Increment
Financing (TIF) district for the area, providing financial incentives for new
industry to locate there.
“The
city, state and federal governments have committed millions to initiatives that
will put this plan into action, and corporations and foundations are getting
behind it as well,” said Chicago Ald. John Pope (D-10th), who represents
Southeast Side neighborhoods. “New development is already underway, expanding
our job market and tax base. At the same time, working families want and need
recreation. By reserving thousands of acres of natural space for the public,
this plan is creating beautiful places for people to hike, bike, run and just
relax.”
Though
area residents are still weathering economic and environmental fallout,
opportunities for revitalization are ripe. The Calumet region boasts nearly 60
percent of available land in
Chicago
designated for industry. Nine million
freight containers pass through yearly via ship, rail or truck. And the area
leads the nation in steel production. Amidst this industrial muscle is the
Midwest
’s largest wetland area, which supports
plants, mammals and some 200 species of birds, including the endangered
Black-crowned Night heron and Yellow-headed Blackbird.
To supplement the Calumet Area Land Use Plan,
DPD also helped draft the Calumet Open Space Reserve Plan and the
Calumet Design Guidelines
.
Taken collectively, these plans protect some 4,000 acres known as the Calumet
Open Space Reserve. They require new businesses in the area to blend in with
their natural surroundings and offer incentives and guidelines to help
businesses do that. For instance, the city and state contributed nearly $2.5
million to help Ford install energy-efficient technology in its facility. Also,
a new nature center constructed partially from recycled rebar and glass will
anchor the Calumet Open Space Reserve, sparking renewed recreational interest in
the region and serving as a model of “green” development.
“With this award, we applaud the Department of Planning
and Development for its Calumet Area Land Use Plan
,” said Terry Perucca, president, Bank of
America Illinois, who presented the Burnham Award to DPD at MPC’s 2004 Annual
Meeting Luncheon Oct. 7. “The
Calumet
region
has suffered for too long from the absence of ‘big picture’ planning. This
initiative signals the start of a new era, in which new job opportunities and
restored land and waters secure the
Calumet
region for generations to come.”
Now in
its
17th year, the Burnham Award for Excellence in Planning
is presented annually at MPC’s Annual Meeting Luncheon. This year’s award carries
a $5,000 prize underwritten by Bank of America. MPC’s 2004 luncheon, at
the Chicago
Hilton &
Towers,
featured former U.N. Ambassador Alan Keyes, Republican candidate for U.S.
Senate, and Ill. Sen. Barack Obama, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. Both
speakers presented, in a non-debate format, their perspectives on the federal
government’s role in addressing issues critical to businesses and residents in
the
Chicago
region.
The
Department of Planning and Development promotes economic development in
Chicago
by
helping new and existing businesses meet their goals while creating new jobs for
city residents. DPD is also responsible for preserving the city’s architectural
and historical landmarks, protecting the Chicago River and
Lake Michigan
shorelines, and creating new public
greenspace for use by city residents, workers and visitors.
One of the world’s leading financial services companies,
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.
For more information, contact Mandy Burrell , MPC’s
communications associate, at 312.863.6018 or mburrell@metroplanning.org; or Peter Scales, DPD’s
communications director, at 312.744.2976 or pscales@cityofchicago.org
.