TO THE CITIZENS OF NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS: 

Good information, comprehensive strategies, practical assistance, creative partnerships. These, in the simplest terms, are the benefits which NIPC was created to provide to the region. This report will acquaint you with some of the information, strategies, and assistance we furnished and the partnerships we supported in the 1998-99 program year.

For forty-two years, NIPC has engaged local governments and citizens in dialogue about the future needs of the region and provided some of the information and ideas you need to make wise choices. During that period, we have had the support of the six counties, of many cities and villages and special-purpose districts, of state agencies, and of a host of civic, environmental and other organizations. Beyond their financial participation, they have used our data, advised us in policy-making, and implemented many of our recommendations. This is how we, as an advisory agency, measure our success. That support has been strong again this year.

We also measure our success by the partnerships through which others in the region take up the issues and values we have espoused and add their own expertise and objectives to the mix. During 1998-99 we continued our long-standing collaboration with the Chicago Area Transportation Study in planning for the region’s future transportation needs. Many public and private organizations joined with us in the Campaign for Sensible Growth, which we co chaired with the Metropolitan Planning Council. The Chicago Region Biodiversity Council and the Illinois House Smart Growth Task Force, on which we participated, prepared forward-looking recommendations in their respective areas. And a broad spectrum of the region’s leadership joined us in Rosemont in March for a conference on building new partnerships.

In personal terms, it was a year of unwelcome transition for all of us at NIPC as Phil Peters retired after six and a half years as our executive director. Phil joined the staff in 1963 and, except for four years away, spent the rest of his career in service to northeastern Illinois. He held a variety of positions at NIPC, including Director of Planning and Deputy Director. He also served in state and national leadership positions in the American Planning Association and as chair of Chicago Wilderness. Phil’s professional style was open and collaborative. He was instrumental in fostering the development of corridor councils and other intergovernmental forums. His retirement deprived us of an outstanding professional and a genial colleague.

INFORMATION…..Whether one is building a house or a region, good tools are a necessity. In planning, the basic too/s include information about current and future conditions and techniques for gathering, presenting, and using that information. Much of our effort this year was devoted to developing tools to support NIPC’S own policy development and other regional and local planning and implementation programs.

• FORECAST PREPARATIONS   Every three years, we update our forecasts of population, households and employment for the region. The three-year period corresponds to the cycle for revising the region's transportation plan. Under our interagency agreement with the Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS), the forecasts provide the basis for determining future demand for transportation facilities and services. They are also used by state and local agencies for sizing new wastewater facilities, allocating Lake Michigan water, and updating local comprehensive plans.

Our current forecasts were endorsed in November 1997. This year we began to lay the groundwork for the next revision. This work included completion of municipal employment estimates for 1995 and additions to our database of development projects in the region. We made refinements to the DRAM-EMPAL computer model which we use to forecast the interaction between the availability of transportation and the location of jobs and residences. We reactivated the Forecast Technical Advisory Committee, whose members include experts in demography and planning from state and local agencies and the academic community. The committee will advise us on questions of methodology and the relationship of our forecasts to those produced by other bodies.

• LAND USE UPDATE   Accurate information on land uses is essential to the forecasting process as well as to a variety of planning applications. In 1995 we completed an inventory of land uses based on interpretation of aerial photographs of the region in 1990 and the recording of that interpretation in digital form. This year we neared completion of an update of that inventory based on 1995 photographs. The process involved a comparison of photographs to identify changes in land uses, the identification of the precise uses, and the digital recording of that information. Preliminary results were reviewed with the county planning agencies to assure their accuracy. When completed, the inventory will provide planners with information on conversion of agricultural and vacant land, redevelopment of former industrial areas for residential use, and development pressure on natural resource areas.
  
  

• GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM   Growing numbers of public agencies and private organizations are using geographic in formation systems (GIS) as a tool to analyze spatial data--that is, data about things which take up space on the ground. Data from different sources can be used together as long as they apply to the same geographic area. To take one simple example, a transit agency can use GIS to assess the demographic and employment characteristics of people living within a defined distance of a transit route in order to determine the most appropriate type and level of service.

As more users develop their own data sets -- municipal boundaries, wetlands, streets, household income, and so forth -- the potential number of planning issues that can be analyzed rises rapidly. But this requires that the data be compatible, and that users know what data sets are available from what sources. During 1998-99, we moved toward the creation of a regional catalog of spatial data. The entries in the catalog, called "metadata" or data about data, describe the information in each data set, how and when it was collected, at what geographic scale it is organized, and how it can be accessed. Organizing this metadata in a uniform format enables a GIS user to locate, typically by means of the Internet, data sets applicable to a particular planning problem and determine whether they are compatible. The catalog or clearinghouse for northeastern Illinois will be linked to similar clearinghouses worldwide, allowing NIPC and other users to access data about the region no matter where it happens to be stored. 

STRATEGIES…..Because there is no single government in northeastern Illinois which is regional in its scope, regional plans are not directly linked to any implementing authority. Rather, they take the form of advisory recommendations to numerous state and local agencies. Their strength is that, if done well, they can weave together the authorities and functions of multiple agencies and provide a framework for coordination. To accomplish this, they must be prepared in collaboration with the agencies which will implement them. During 1998-99 we initiated or continued work on three broad planning strategies which will help shape the region's development into the next century.

• REGIONAL GROWTH STRATEGY   Our forecasts of substantial population and employment growth in the next twenty years present the region with a substantial challenge. If that growth is balanced throughout the six counties, it can bring renewed investment and energy to our older communities, some of which have suffered decline in recent years, and support well-planned, environmentally sustainable growth in new suburban areas. If we cannot achieve that balance, we may face a continued cycle of disinvestment in some parts of the region and unnecessarily high resource consumption in others. The Regional Growth Strategy is intended to provide local governments and others with the policy tools to encourage and support balanced, sustainable growth.

During the year, we prepared and presented an analysis of the implications of the endorsed population and employment forecasts for future development. We found that most of the region’s expected growth could be accommodated in the developed portions of the region and areas immediately contiguous to them without significant increases in densities. However, this would require aggressive local policies in support of redevelopment and infill development. Identifying and recommending feasible policies to accomplish this while supporting new growth is the challenge of the growth strategy.

The focus of our work this year was the analysis of issues and identification of policy options which can contribute to balanced growth. Papers dealing with redevelopment of brownfields, transit-oriented development, redevelopment and infill, development-based taxation, and natural resource management were prepared. Additional papers will address site design, housing, transportation, racial diversity, and intergovernmental cooperation. Each paper was reviewed with an advisory committee of local and state government professionals and a larger consultative panel of public, civic. business, environmental, and other representatives. These groups will recommend a unified strategy for adoption by the Commission in early 2001.

During the year, commissioners and project staff made presentations and sought feedback on the growth strategy from stakeholders including professional planners and architects, county planning commissions, municipal associations, and university and civic groups. This public involvement is critical if the growth strategy is to reflect broad consensus on the region’s needs in the next century.

• WATER TRAILS PLAN   We neared completion of the region’s (and perhaps the nation’s) first regional water trails plan. The new plan, a companion to the Regional Greenways Plan, will recommend a system of nearly 500 miles of water trails for canoeing and kayaking on the region’s waterways. The trail system will include portions of Lake Michigan, the Chicago River, the Des Plaines River, Salt Creek, the DuPage River, the Fox River, Nippersink Creek, the Kishwaukee River, the Kankakee River, and the Calumet Area waterways. The plan is the product of a partnership among water trail users, planners, recreation providers, and funding agencies. The lead agencies are NIPC, Openlands Project, and the Illinois Paddling Council. with funding provided by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

The plan will recommend designation of over 160 established and proposed access and portage sites. The access sites, approximately 3 to 5 miles apart, are almost all on land owned by public agencies. These include forest preserve and conservation districts, park districts, municipalities, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. In January, project staff met with these property owners to review the proposed sites and to seek support for their designation. Use of these access points will be enhanced through development of coordinated signage and consistent information on local rules and conditions. The plan will also help make these assets better known to residents and visitors to northeastern Illinois. After its adoption by the Commission later in 1999, the plan will be implemented through coordinating committees for each of the waterways. Site owners will play a major role in those committees.

• STRATEGIC PLAN FOR WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT   Strong growth in the region's population and employment will generate increased demand for potable water and for water-based recreation. That same growth will put increasing pressure on water quality, on aquatic habitat, and on the capacity of our rivers and streams to convey stormwater. With these concerns in mind, we initiated preparation of a strategic plan for managing the water resources of northeastern Illinois. The plan will set forth a vision for effective water resource management in northeastern Illinois and identify critical issues facing the region. In response to these issues, it will identify basic guiding principles and objectives, outline recommended strategies and actions, and suggest the entities responsible for their implementation.

The first step in the planning process was the identification and prioritization of issues. We did this in consultation with a group of nearly 100 technical and policy experts organized into task forces on water quality, stormwater management, and water supply. We also convened a regional Water Resources Advisory Committee with representatives from local, state, and federal agencies, private organizations, and public interest groups. This process led to the identification and prioritization of 49 key issues. The three most serious, in the advisors’ judgment, are the inadequacy of our current floodplain maps, which substantially underestimate 100-year flood stages; the continued failure of most of our urban and suburban streams, rivers, and lakes to meet the fishable/swimmable goals of the Clean Water Act; and the availability of groundwater and surface water supplies to meet the demands of growth in the outer collar counties.

Our next step is the formulation of recommended strategies amid actions. The strategic plan which emerges from this process will reflect a broad consensus that can effectively influence state policy on behalf of the region and lead to a much-enhanced public understanding of the issues pertaining to water.

ASSISTANCE.…The range and complexity of issues facing local governments seem to) grow faster than the resources available to address them. Often, the skills and information required are beyond the ability of any single local entity to secure. NIPC has been able to) build staff specialties applicable to problems throughout the region. While much of our assistance is provided to individual communities, we have also served as a convener of local units with common or shared problems and have been able to find additional resources to support joint planning ventures. 

• MCHENRY COUNTY WETLANDS STUDY   Wetlands -- marshes, wet meadows, fens, and bogs -- cover nearly eleven percent of McHenry County. The county’s varied streams include several that rank among the best in Illinois with respect to water quality and natural habitat. These were among the findings of a multi-agency study coordinated by NIPC which was completed during the year. The study was conducted under a U.S. Environmental Protection program known as Advanced Identification, or ADID, which seeks to make information on wetlands, streams, and lakes and their functions available to landowners and local officials. A team of wetland biologists, soil scientists, engineers, and water quality specialists, along with local policy advisors, identified 3,785 wetlands covering 41,685 acres. Of these, 154 wetlands totaling 17,489 acres met the criteria for high quality natural habitats. An additional 274 wetlands totaling 8,292 acres were found to provide high value stormwater and water quality protection functions. Lakes and streams which provide important natural habitat were also identified.

In addition to evaluating the quality of wetlands and aquatic resources, the ADID team developed a protection amid management strategy. This strategy identified improved education, implementation of best management practices, acquisition, and restoration as recommended techniques. Following the McHenry County model, a new ADID study has been initiated in Kane County. We are coordinating this study for EPA, working closely with the Kane County Development Department.

• SUBAREA RESIDENTIAL PLANNING   On June 23, 1999, municipal and county officials from northeastern Kane and southeastern McHenry counties convened as a Subarea Housing Congress to receive information and recommendations on meeting the future residential needs of their area. The Congress was a major milestone in a collaborative venture begun in February 1998. At that time, eleven communities -- Algonquin, Carpentersville, Cary, Crystal Lake, East Dundee, Elgin, Fox River Grove, Gilberts, Lake in the Hills, Sleepy Hollow, and West Dundee -- met at our invitation to initiate a residential planning process.

Joined together by their expectation of continued growth in residents and jobs, they set out to assess their future residential needs, identify techniques for increasing housing diversity and affordability, and consider the implications of future residential development for transportation, education, public finances, amid social infrastructure. They formed a subarea steering committee which worked for the next sixteen months on detailed needs assessment, program identification, and development of collaborative strategies. They were joined in this by representatives of the two counties. We provided technical and administrative support.

The Housing Congress accepted the steering committee’s findings of need for increased preservation of the existing housing stock, sustainable new development, residential choice to accommodate employment growth, and a housing market operating without discrimination. They agreed on the importance of further education of local officials and residents and on the desirability of creating an intergovernmental entity to continue the process. Among other functions, this entity would secure and distribute financial and other incentives for implementation of the steering committee’s recommendations. We believe that the project demonstrates an approach which can be applied in other parts of the six counties. 

• LOCAL GOVERNMENT TRAINING   Citizen planning commissioners are on the front line in shaping the region's growth through their responsibility for preparing county and municipal comprehensive plans and reviewing proposed developments. Despite this importance, training and networking opportunities for them have been limited. During the year, we conducted a series of training workshops on the duties of a planning commissioner and on various substantive topics. These included preparation of comprehensive plans, planning law and ethics, and site design for air and water quality benefits. The workshops also included role-playing exercises on development review and conflict resolution. Workshops were held in Elgin, Tinley Park, Oak Brook, and Grayslake. They were presented in cooperation with the Illinois Chapter of the American Planning Association, the College of Lake County, and the several municipal conferences.

In May, planning commissioners also participated with professional planners and engineers in a three-day course on stormwater best management practices. One of the topics added since the course was last offered in 1993 was on the landscape design of stormwater systems. The course identified techniques utilizing deep-rooted native wetland and prairie plants in detention basins, swales, and even the upland areas of development sites. Case studies highlighting local projects addressed issues of affordability, local government acceptance, and marketing.

We also continued our role as convener of the Local Government Training Network. This coalition publishes a twice-yearly listing of training opportunities available to local government officials and staff. It also hosts the "Spotlight on Trainers", a forum in which professional trainers make brief sample presentations to local representatives who may be interested in purchasing training services. 

• PROJECT REVIEWS   One of our long-standing functions is the review of local proposals for certain categories of federal and state funding. These include grants for road improvements, open space acquisition and development, congestion mitigation and air quality improvements, and community development. Our intent in conducting the project review program has been to assist local governments by advising them on the unanticipated impacts of projects and on coordination with neighboring communities.

Reviews of proposed wastewater treatment plant expansions and sewer extensions have been a major aspect of the Commission’s program. Most of the projects brought to us involve changes in the applicant’s wastewater facility planning area or FPA. These reviews are advisory to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), which issues the necessary permits and FPA amendments. Early in the year, the agency announced its intention to phase out the FPA process and replace it with an unspecified watershed planning program. Many agencies in the region were concerned that this would weaken the best available mechanism for evaluating the growth implications of wastewater service decisions. Working with a coalition of these organizations, we prevailed upon IEPA to defer action until a replacement process has been designed.

• CENSUS WORKSHOPS   There is no way of knowing how many public and private decisions each year are based in part on information derived from the federal census. The accuracy of the census is thus critical. This concern extends not just to the results but to the geographic base -- municipal boundaries, street addresses, and the like -- on which returns are collected and analyzed. Prior to each census, local governments are given an opportunity to review this data and recommend revisions to the Census Bureau. As we have in the past, we conducted a series of workshops for local representatives on how to prepare the most useful responses to the Bureau’s invitation. 
  
  

• NIPC DATA ON COMPACT DISC   As the types and volume of data we maintain have increased, we have sought new vehicles for making it available to public officials and the public. Soon after we opened our Internet web site in 1997, users were able to download our demographic forecasts, 1990 census results, and other information. This year we took another step with the release of two compact discs. The first was the Digital Map of the Region. It contains files of municipal boundaries, census tracts, major roads, and 1990 land use which can be assembled into a regional base map using GIS technology. The CD also contains census data, forecasts, and printable map images, along with the software necessary to view and print them.

The second CD contains information developed through the McHenry County wetlands inventory study described above. This includes maps and information on all ADID sites. Mapping software included on the disc enables querying and screening of various wetland characteristics. Detailed information on individual wetlands can be printed out. 

PARTNERSHIPS..…Illinois is renowned for its numerous local governments. We are also home to hundreds of civic, environmental, professional, community and other organizations interested in regional or subregional issues. In this complex environment, planning must be collaborative. We have been active in numerous partnerships and have provided leadership and technical or administrative support to some of them.. Each represents an effort to attain unity of vision and action within the diversity of faces and viewpoints in the region.

• CHICAGO WILDERNESS   Northeastern Illinois and adjacent portions of Indiana and Wisconsin contain numerous remnants of the landscape which greeted the first settlers. The wetlands, prairies, woodlands and waters of the Chicago Wilderness include globally rare native ecosystems and habitats for endangered and threatened species. While many of these areas are in public ownership, their ecological value is diminished by the pressures of urban development.

The Chicago Region Biodiversity Council is a coalition of 92 governmental, scientific, civic, and advocacy organizations dedicated to protecting the natural communities of the Chicago Wilderness region and fostering a sustainable relationship between society and nature. During the year, we worked with a task force of the council to draft the nation’s first biodiversity recovery plan. The draft plan outlines general strategies and a process for developing specific action steps to manage land to protect its natural quality, to preserve additional land with high natural value, to improve our biodiversity monitoring and research programs, and to increase citizen awareness of and participation in biodiversity conservation. The draft plan also calls for local and regional development policies to reflect the need to restore and maintain natural areas. We expect to adopt the plan in late 1999.

• TRANSPORTATION PLANNING   Our region enjoys an extensive and diverse surface transportation system second to none. The maintenance and enhancement of this system has been based on comprehensive regional transportation planning built on the best available analytic and planning techniques, sound forecasts of future population and employment, local and regional plans for future hand use and growth management, and high standards of environmental protection. This planning has been carried on through a unique partnership among NIPC, the Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS), the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). Each agency brings to transportation planning and programming a unique perspective based on the composition of its governing body, its constituency, and its past accomplishments. The agencies collectively represent the depth and diversity of concerns and interests in the region. Moreover, they reflect the broad distribution to local governments of legal responsibility and public accountability for maintenance and operation of the transportation system and for planning and regulation development and land use.

The Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) was last adopted in November 1997. During the 1998-99 program year, the partner agencies made preparations for an update of the plan to be completed in late 2000. These included collection of data on system performance, refinement of the computer models used to test alternatives, and enhancement of our public involvement processes. Our forecast preparations described above are an integral part of this process.

• UPPER DES PLAINES RIVER STEERING COMMITTEE   The Des Plaines River has been the subject of an intensive 10-year flood control study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. When the Corps' recommendations were released, local agencies in Lake and Cook counties were concerned that serious flood damage remained and that the Corps had relied too heavily on structural solutions which would disturb existing uses on public lands. We offered to serve as a convener for agencies in the basin (between the Wisconsin state line and Riverside) as they developed a locally-preferred plan. Subsequently the group agreed on the need for a multi-objective Phase Two study which would consider recreational uses, water quality, habitat restoration and other values of the river in conjunction with flood control.

A watershed steering committee and a larger advisory committee have been formed with representation from state, county, and local agencies. The steering committee endorsed goals and objectives for the Phase Two study in March and began to identify potential study elements and sources of funding. The project will be coordinated with a multi-state initiative known as the Upper Des Plaines River Ecosystem Partnership. That coalition, of which we are a member, is sponsoring studies of water quality enhancement and ecologic restoration opportunities in the basin.

  CAMPAIGN FOR SENSIBLE GROWTH  

In 1997 we joined together with the Metropolitan Planning Council to initiate the Campaign for Sensible Growth. The Campaign is a coalition of government, civic, and business groups jointly promoting strategies to achieve the goals of economic vitality, cost-effective and sustainable development, open space preservation, and improved livability of our communities. The steering committee includes representatives of the Regional Transit Authority, Openlands Project, Chicago District Council of the Urban Land Institute, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Business and Professional People for the Public Interest.

During 1998-99 the Campaign held a series of outreach sessions with local officials, business and civic headers, and developers in communities throughout the six counties. These were opportunities for us to hear firsthand about the development issues they face and to consider together how sensible growth principles can contribute to their solution. We conducted a survey of businesses in the region on growth factors which influence their competitiveness. And we initiated, in cooperation with the American Planning Association, a study of Illinois planning laws and practice which will lead to recommendations for improved state and local planning and coordination.

A printed version of this document can be obtained by calling NIPC's Publication Department at 312-454-0400, ext. 210.

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NIPC's Fiscal Year 1998 Annual Report

NIPC's Fiscal Year 1997 Annual Report

Posted 03/20/00