Riverfront Planning - Case Study of the 'Chicago River Corridor Development Plan' E-Book

Felix Weickmann

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2007

Beschreibung

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2006 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Demographics, Urban Management, Planning, grade: none, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Institute of Geography), language: English, abstract: In many urban regions, awareness of the specific challenges facing water-connected areas is increasing, and for the last forty years waterfront revitalization has been a hot topic worldwide. This has also been the case in the seven-million citizen region of Chicago. The factories and industries that once lined the Chicago River are now mostly gone (having closed or moved to greenfield sites). Nowadays a new mode of thinking is needed to decide how riverfront areas should best be redesigned and redeveloped. Even in the last few years, awareness of the importance of enhancing the conditions along the Chicago River corridor and developing new valuable urban areas for residential and recreational utilization has grown. In 2005, Chicago’s mayor labeled the river as “Chicago’s second shoreline” and claimed that the river’s banks are no longer “forgotten areas”. Against this political background the following paper investigates the research question: How does the City of Chicago approach comprehensive planning for the Chicago River Corridor? To answer this question an analysis of the planning process and a plan assessment is done. The paper proceeds as follows. In the next section is an overview given of the history of the development and utilization of the Chicago River corridor. Sections 3 and 4 discussed the comprehensive plan making process as a basic planning tool and the specific content and features of the Development Plan, respectively. Section 5 presents a critical assessment of the river and riverfront planning approach of the City of Chicago. The paper concludes with suggestions of how planners can improve comprehensive waterfront plans and comprehensive plans in general as well as approach best plan making processes associated with urban riverfront development.

Leseprobe

Table of Content

1 Introduction

2 The Chicago River History

2.1 The Early History and Water-Based Economic Growth

2.3 The Plan of Chicago and post World War II

2.4 Current Situation - Changing the Image

3 The Comprehensive Planning Approach

3.1 Why Planning?

3.2 The Comprehensive Plan

3.3 The Legal Basis

3.4 Elements of the Plan Making Process

3.5 Community Planning Concept

3.6 Planning in a Contemporary Democracy

3.7 Public Participation in the Planning Process

3.8 The Planning Body

4 Case Study: The Chicago River Corridor Development Plan

4.1 The Development Plan

4.1.1 The Goals of the Development Plan

4.1.2 Reaches and Development Opportunity Sites

4.1.3 The Implementation Strategies

4.2 Further Plans

5 The Planning Process

5.1 The Key Players

5.2 Task Forces, Steering Committees, and Public Meetings

5.3 Finances and Leadership

6 Assessments and Recommendations

6.1 Key Findings

6.2 Leadership and Political Will

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Riverfront Planning

‘Chicago River Corridor Development Plan’

Humboldt-University Berlin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Institute of Geography Dept. of Urban and Regional Planning

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Felix Weickmann Riverfront Planning - The ‘Chicago River Corridor Development Plan’Acknowledgement

In 2005 I spend four months at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to research comprehensive urban riverfront planning in the United States. I was part of the Network for European and United States Regional and Urban Studies (NEURUS) that works as collaboration between universities in Europe (the Netherlands, Germany, Austria) and the United States (California, Illinois, North Carolina). I would like to thank the whole NEURUS-team for this great chance and the experiences I gained.

I would also like to thank my advisers’ professor Elmar Kulke, professor Christopher Silver, and faculty excellence associate professor Edward Feser sincerely for supporting me and for their comments and suggestions during my research. Explicit thanks to Edward Feser for the numerous motivating technical discussions we had. It was a pleasure working with you.

And finally, I want to mention my fellow NEURUS-students who gave me valuable feedback on my research design and my final presentation. We had a nice time.

Berlin, March 2006

Felix Weickmann

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Felix Weickmann Riverfront Planning - The ‘Chicago River Corridor Development Plan’6.3 Public Participation………………………………………………………………………. 30 6.4 Water Quality……………………………………………………………………………... 31 6.5 Environmental Education……………………………………………………………...… 327 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….32 References………………………………………………………………………………….……... 34 The Interviewed Experts…………………………………………………………………………. 36 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………... 37

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Felix Weickmann Riverfront Planning - The ‘Chicago River Corridor Development Plan’

1 Introduction

Waterfronts are important areas for the biosphere on earth. Many kinds of flora and fauna are settled here. At the same time, people use these areas for all their different needs. Water-based industry, residential and recreational uses, environmental quality, commercial development, and transportation are only a few of many different and often contrary human uses. Waterfronts are also important areas for the development of cities. Many cities are linked by them by foundation and contributed to their subsequent development (BREEN; RIGBY 1996: 11). That is especially eminent in case of big seaports like Rotterdam, Hong Kong or Rio de Janeiro. But also landlocked cities like Berlin and in a way also Chicago owe their rise and growth partly to their waterways.

That shows the importance of comprehensive planning approach as the basis of planning and development especially for these urban areas. The pressure of utilization on water-connected urban areas is rising. City administrations want to revitalize their urban waterfront areas and enhance the worth of urban land along the water. As a result, planners are charged with balancing a variety of public and private objectives (cp. fig.1). The diverse range of uses has to be managed and planned to avoid conflicts and to use these areas in a rational way. Comprehensive planning is an often used approach to plan and develop large areas in an extensive way. It is necessary in order for the waterfront to be most functional and useful of the city - aesthetically, recreationally, and economically. Therefore the comprehensive planning approach is used in this research as theoretical basis to analyze the Development Plan and its planning process (cp. research question beneath). In many urban regions, awareness of the specific challenges facing water-connected areas is increasing, and for the last forty years waterfront revitalization has been a hot topic worldwide (cp. e.g. SENATSVERWALTUNGFÜRSTADTENTWICKLUNG BERLIN 2006, NORTH BANK PROJECT 2006, WATERFRONT CENTER 2006). This has also been the case in the sevenmillion citizen region of Chicago. The factories and industries that once lined the Chicago River are now mostly gone (having closed or moved to greenfield sites). Nowadays a new mode of thinking is needed to decide how riverfront areas should best be redesigned and redeveloped. Even in the last few years, awareness of the importance of enhancing the conditions along the Chicago River corridor and developing new valuable urban areas for residential and recreational utilization has grown. In 2005, Chicago’s mayor labeled the river as “Chicago’s second shoreline” (DALEY 2005: 1) and claimed that the river’s banks are no longer “forgotten areas” (CITYOFCHICAGOTP F1FP T). Against this political background the following paper investigates the research question:

1City of Chicago, Department of Planning and Development. Interview on October 27Pth2005.

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