Mission

The lack of a cohesive land use policy in most growing communities promotes sprawl, which not only fragments communities, forcing people to drive more and destroying the original character of an area, but also significantly reduces the amount of open land. This loss of farm land and natural space degrades not only the health of the environment, but the quality of life for residents.

Smart Growth is an innovative approach to curbing sprawl that utilizes existing infrastructure, such as vacant parcels and accessible rail, to build communities full of character, transportation options, and open land.

 

Smart Growth Image Bank

The photographs in the Smart Growth Image Bank depict smart growth versus sprawl land use patterns in the Midwest. Visual images are key for persuading both the general public and policymakers that traditional city design, also known as traditional neighborhood development, is ultimately more lasting, more sustainable, than urban sprawl. The image bank provides a source of images specific to the Great Lakes region. The images depict small towns and medium-to-large cities in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.

The Smart Growth Image Bank CD is available free of charge for non-commercial use. For a copy, please email or write: Smart Growth c/o ELPC, 35 East Wacker Drive, Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601.

The Visions Project: Choosing a Future for Growing Communities

Throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, open space and farmland are vanishing at a startling rate, casualties of seemingly chronic suburban sprawl. The very amenities that have lured new residents to outlying areas – plentiful open spaces, clean air, community appeal – will dwindle away unless development patterns change. Meanwhile, older urbanized areas will continue to cede economic vitality.

In recent years, business leaders, environmentalists, and public officials have found common ground in seeking to reverse this troubling trend. Reports from Openlands Project, an environmental organization, and the Commercial Club of Chicago, a voice of the region’s business community, have both concluded that current land use practices must change in order to protect what remains of our region’s natural heritage.

Visions: Choosing a Future for Growing Communities is a new project that literally draws a picture of what the future would look like in four different areas of the region, depending on how growth occurs. Visions marks the Chicago-area debut of a planning technique pioneered by Dodson Associates, a Massachusetts-based landscape architecture firm. The technique involves the creation of drawings that depict the development styles typically associated with various land use decisions. As a result, people can foresee how the landscape they will inhabit in the future is shaped by the policies they adopt today. Read more here.

The Visions Project report is available free of charge for non-commercial use. For a copy, please email or write: Visions c/o ELPC, 35 East Wacker Drive, Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601.