Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission

WINGSPREAD TRI-STATE REGIONAL ACCORD SIGNED TODAY
FOR 17-COUNTY AREA IN ILLINOIS, INDIANA, WISCONSIN

First in Nation. Initial Activities Announced. Information Kit Available.

CHICAGO, IL – Representatives of four planning agencies from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin signed the nation’s first tri-state regional planning accord today, named the Wingspread Tri-State Regional Accord, and announced the group’s initial activities.

“This is the first time in the nation that four adjacent regional planning agencies covering all or parts of 17 counties in three states have come together in this kind of partnership, and it can serve as a model for similar agreements in other areas of the country,” said NIPC President Herbert T. Schumann. “We recognize that the future of the greater Chicago metropolitan region depends upon initiatives that extend beyond state borders.”

The 17 counties in the Wingspread Accord cover a total of nearly 8,000 square miles and more than 1,500 government entities comprising cities, townships and special-purpose governing units.

“The four agencies signing the accord acknowledge that the multi-state region is characterized by socio-economic-environmental interdependence,” said Gary Mayor Scott King while leading a news conference in Chicago to officially sign the agreement. He also serves as president of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC).

Parameters of the agreement were initiated at the Wingspread conference facility in Wisconsin last year. Signing the final accord today in a news conference were officers of the four participating agencies. In addition to Schumann and King were Jeffrey Schielke, Vice Chairman of the Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS) Policy Committee and mayor of Batavia, IL, and Jean M. Jacobson, secretary of Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) and county executive of Racine County, WI.

The first activities started by the Wingspread group are:

·        Develop a tri-state regional web site as a point-of-entry for information about the Chicago-Milwaukee-Gary regional area.

·        Conduct a strategic analysis of the economy in consensus with business organizations in the tri-state regional area.

·        Create a case book with profiles of development projects to encourage sound economic development projects in the tri-state region.

·        Sponsor a series of workshops to identify common coastal management issues of the Lake Michigan shoreline in the tri-state region.

·        Serve as a forum for local government leadership and engage business, civic and institutional sectors to support regional planning.

·        Enlist federal and state governments to play key roles as partners and funders of tri-state planning initiatives in cooperation with existing agencies.

·        Increase interstate and interagency communications.

·        Develop methods to improve planning efforts.

NIPC is the official comprehensive planning agency for six counties in northeastern Illinois (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will). It provides forecasting, land use, community development and natural resource planning for the northeastern Illinois region, the third largest metropolitan region in the country covering approximately 1,520 square miles. It contains 272 municipalities, more than 1,000 other governmental units and approximately 8 million people.

SEWRPC serves as the official areawide planning agency for the highly urbanized southeast region of Wisconsin. The 2,700-square-mile region contains seven counties, 147 general-purpose local units of government and numerous school and special-purpose governmental districts.

CATS is the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) designated by state and local officials to administer the urban transportation planning process for the northeastern Illinois region, which includes Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties, plus a portion of Kendall County.

NIRPC is a multi-purpose areawide planning agency created by state statute, covering the three counties of Lake, Porter and LaPorte in northwestern Indiana. It is home to 741,468 citizens and covers 1,520 square miles with 41 cities and towns and 44 townships in the area.

OTHER CONTACTS:

Eugene Ryan, Associate Executive Director
Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS)
Phone: 312-793-3458
Email: evjlryan@yahoo.com

Ron Thomas, Executive Director
Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC)
Phone: 312-454-0400
Email: rthomas@nipc.org

Jim Ranfranz, Executive Director
Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC)
Phone: 219-763-6060
Email: jranfranz@nirpc.org

Phil Evenson, Executive Director
Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC)
Phone: 262-547-6721, ext. 240
Email: pevenson@sewrpc.org

The Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission is the comprehensive planning agency for the six-county metropolitan area. In addition to planning, the agency provides technical and research assistance and reviews state and federal grant requests for local governments.