Public Meeting on April 16 for Blue Island Comprehensive Plan Project

Blue Island has developed a comprehensive plan to help guide land use and other decisions in the City for decades to come.  As part of this effort, the City is inviting local residents, business owners, community leaders, and other stakeholders to attend a public open house. This is an opportunity for the public the review and comment on the draft of the City’s comprehensive plan, which has been shaped by public input for the last 10 months. 

The open house will be held on Monday, April 16, 2012, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the East Annex Building of City Hall, 2434 Vermont Street, Blue Island, Illinois 60406. No formal presentation will be given, so please feel free to drop in at any time between 4:30 and 7:30 p.m.

For more information or to RSVP, please contact Jessica Simoncelli, CMAP Associate, at jsimoncelli@cmap.illinois.gov or (312) 386-8631. For additional information, please visit the project’s webpage at www.cmap.illinois.gov/blue-island.

The draft Blue Island Comprehensive Plan includes recommendations for topics such as future land use, housing, transportation, open spaces, and economic development. A grant to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is enabling CMAP staff to provide technical assistance to the City of Blue Island, including help with public participation and plan development.

Planning Process

In the plan’s first phase of development, an existing conditions analysis was completed to verify current land use, study community facilities, and obtain initial public input regarding the issues and opportunities of the area.  The second phase of planning involved the creation of a shared vision for the community with specific goals and recommendations to help achieve the community’s vision.  This third and final phase of planning includes the development of an implementation strategy that will assist the City, residents, and others in undertaking the plan’s recommendations.

HUD and CMAP build capacity for local planning

Especially in challenging economic times, many communities have difficulty allocating enough resources to plan as proactively as they would prefer.  At the same time, proactive planning is necessary for economic prosperity and protecting community assets.  The HUD-funded effort is helping fill this gap by making staff resources and grants available to assist with local planning projects that help to implement GO TO 2040, the first comprehensive plan for metropolitan Chicago in more than 100 years. 

The HUD grant to CMAP was announced one day after leaders of the seven-county region, on October 13, 2010, unanimously adopted GO TO 2040.  The region’s plan establishes coordinated strategies that help the region’s 284 communities address transportation, housing, economic development, open space, the environment, and other quality-of-life issues.  See www.cmap.illinois.gov for more information.

With the three-year $4.25 million HUD award (http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/press-release-10-14-10), CMAP has begun a new Local Technical Assistance program sponsored by HUD as part of the federal interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. CMAP issued a call for projects in early 2011, prompting more than 220 proposals from over 130 municipalities, counties, interjurisdictional groups, and nongovernmental organizations -- an indication of significant unmet demand for local planning capacity. 

In March 2011, CMAP began partnering with the first wave of 62 local governments, nonprofits, and intergovernmental organizations selected for assistance.  Like the Blue Island effort, these projects address local issues at the intersection of transportation, land use, and housing, including the natural environment, economic growth, and community development.  Download a full list of projects at http://goo.gl/1nYBM.

CMAP is the official regional planning organization for the northeastern Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will. 

Media contact:  Justine Reisinger, 312-386-8802 or jreisinger@cmap.illinois.gov

Program contact:  Jessica Simoncelli, 312-386-8631 or jsimoncelli@cmap.illinois.gov