NIPC Offering Free Technical Assistance
on Conservation Design

The Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) has received a grant to help communities update municipal comprehensive plans and ordinances in order to foster conservation design practices.  NIPC staff will make presentations, provide background, and/or review the ordinances of at least five communities in the six-county NIPC region.

In partnership with Chicago Wilderness, NIPC has developed the Conservation Design Resource Manual: Language and Guidelines for Updating Local Ordinances.  The resource manual is designed to help communities update local plans and ordinances to allow and encourage conservation design practices.

What is Conservation Design? 

Conservation design facilitates development while maintaining the most valuable natural landscape features and ecological functions of the site.  Conservation design includes a collection of site design principles and practices that can be combined to create environmentally sound development.  The main principles for conservation design are:

1. Flexibility in site design and lot size

2. Protection and management of natural areas

3. Reduction of impervious surface areas

4. Sustainable stormwater management.

Why should my community look towards this type of development as an option? 

• There are many community, environmental, and economic benefits to using conservation design: 

• Reducing construction and infrastructure costs by 11 to 66%

• Preserving natural resources and features.

• Reducing the costs of municipal stormwater management

• Making connections to existing natural areas, open space, greenways, and trails.

What do we have to do to allow Conservation Design? 

The most effective way to encourage conservation design is to update local comprehensive plans, codes, and ordinances to reflect the community’s commitment to conservation.  Most importantly, conservation design should be allowed by right and should be the preferred option for many development projects.

What technical assistance does NIPC provide and how can we get it?

NIPC is available to provide:

• Presentations to plan commissions, village boards, and community groups

• Review existing ordinances

• Provide suggested updates to all ordinances

• Review preliminary site development designs

• Please contact Kerry Leigh at NIPC 312-454-0400 or KLeigh@nipc.org to discuss this opportunity.

This project was funded through a grant program supported by the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area, State and Private Forestry, and the US Fish & Wildlife Service, in support of Chicago Wilderness.  USFS and USFWS grants of federal monies are administered by the Illinois Conservation Foundation.