The greater
Chicago
metro region is
projected to grow by some 1.9 million people in the next few decades, topping 10
million by the year 2030.
And if that year and those population
figures still seem far off, take a good look around and witness how communities
are changing, growing, before your very eyes.
Places that used to be just dots on a map
are now retail centers. Yesterday's exurbia is today's suburbia. Farm
communities have given way to subdivisions and strip malls.
As the region has grown, so too have
communities in the far South Suburbs and throughout Will and
Kankakee
counties. So it's
not so much a question of whether we will grow, as it is how we will grow.
For years, we roundly accepted the tenet
that a growing region is a healthy region. Any development was better than no
development. The mantra of "rooftops first, business follows, towns prosper,"
made sense.
We now know that while we welcome the
economic boost that accompanies new growth, there's a price to pay when
development proceeds without proper planning.
Not only have communities learned the hard
way about traffic congestion, longer commutes, higher housing costs, and other
negative effects on quality of life; but more and more they are facing the grim
reality of increased flooding, degraded water quality in local streams and
rivers, and the prospect of water shortages as the next crisis on the horizon.
Where's the connection? More residents
mean more development, which means more driveways, parking lots, pavement, and
more water runoff jeopardizing our waterways.
Just ask residents from
Calumet City
,
Ford
Heights
,
Harvey
,
Homewood
, Flossmoor,
Glenwood, Lansing, South Holland,
Thornton
or any other community that built
along one of the creek or river systems in the Southland. They've had to deal
with flooded basements and contaminated water supplies — not just every 100
years, but following every hard rain.
Look at areas along the DuPage, Fox and
Kankakee
rivers,
where local, state and federal assistance has been necessary to address flooding
and water pollution.
So, as development pressures mount,
several forward-thinking communities are taking a proactive approach to planning
for their future.
Here in the Southland, both Beecher (in Will County) and
Grant Park (in Kankakee County) are partnering with the Metropolitan
Planning Council (MPC), the Campaign for Sensible
Growth
and the
Openlands Project on a planning process for the Trim Creek watershed.