Planning

The RIRP initiative uses data to support building sustainability through green infrastructure investment for the greatest strategic impact.

The Chicago region is defined by transit, yet the future of this vital infrastructure hangs in the balance. MPC is actively engaged in developing legislative and policy recommendations for the future of the region's transit system.

The Chicago, Calumet, and Des Plaines rivers are three of our city’s greatest assets. Investments such as new boat houses and riverbank restoration are helping people in the Chicago region change the way they think of and experience our rivers. Our Great Rivers is a collaborative, comprehensive 30-year vision for the Chicago region's waterways. Together we are reconnecting communities and their rivers.

Collective planning is a tool for residents and stakeholders to co-create a vision for their city, a plan for funding projects, and solutions to implement the shared vision. In 2020 MPC helped co-create the inclusive, community-informed planning process that led to "We Will Chicago."

Zoning and land use are policy and planning tools that can help shape the way residents interact with their neighborhoods and lead to greater equitable and sustainable development.

COVID-19 brought the Chicago region—and the world—to its knees, sickening our residents, stressing our institutions, commerce, and infrastructure, and underscoring the inequities between our communities. MPC offered expert analysis and recommendations on a unique moment in American history.

MPC is advocating for policies, funding, and planning that advances development near transit—known as transit-oriented development, or TOD—for people of all incomes, in neighborhoods across the region. 

MPC and Elevated Chicago, in collaboration with MUSE Community and Design and the Mayor's Office of Racial Justice and Equity (OERJ), brought together seven City of Chicago departments to practice advanced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles, build stronger internal networks, and engage in candid conversations on applying an equity framework to everyday challenges faced by public servants. 

Developed over many months in collaboration with stakeholders, and informed by the lived experience of members of the community, MPC has created a blueprint of strategies for community action against displacement.