Metropolitan Planning Council

Understanding the Des Plaines River (Reach 6)

Carolyn
Des Plaines River illustration

About the Project

The Chicago River System has evolved since the launch of the Our Great Rivers initiative. To determine if Chicago is reducing barriers to the good life and fostering shared prosperity for its residents and business all along the river system, this evaluation notes how the system and its surrounding communities have changed over time. Consistent with the project structure, the findings are organized into the themes of inviting, productive, and living.

About the Approach

The Our Great Rivers project considers the Chicago River System as six distinct areas, or ‘reaches.’ The following analysis shares demographic, socioeconomic, community development, and ecological data and trends between approximately 2015 and 2025 to detail transformations along or near the river system.

In the Current

Want to get to know a catalytic project and leader bringing the vision of Our Great Rivers to life in Reach 6? To learn more about an initiative creating lasting benefits for local communities and the river system, explore a story of transformation: the Des Plaines River Trail.

A Glimpse Into the Des Plaines River

Where is this reach located?

This reach includes the Des Plaines River. Bounded by W. Belmont Avenue on the south and Higgins Road on the north, setting the border of the City of Chicago with Franklin Park. The overall length is 4.3 miles with significant amounts of river edge located in Forest Preserve of Cook County land, like Schiller Woods. It touches the O’Hare community area.

What are the main characteristics of this reach?

This reach is characterized by forest preserves and the natural river corridor along Chicago’s northwestern edge. Much of the riverfront is protected within Forest Preserves of Cook County land, including Schiller Woods, which creates opportunities for recreation, habitat conservation, and access to nature. While adjacent to major transportation infrastructure and the O’Hare community area, the reach is defined primarily by its ecological character and open green spaces.

What’s rising to the surface in this reach?

The key findings and trends of this reach show a nuanced story about this reach – and our river system as a whole. The Des Plaines reach stands out as a largely nature-centered river corridor. Its extensive forest preserve land and connected trail system provide significant ecological and recreational value, though the reach still experiences some combined sewer overflows and flooding. The reach has a relatively small population, which has remained stable. Household incomes and home values have notably increased along the river at a higher rate than the surrounding community, but rental costs have seen a slower increase, offering more affordability. The area has limited development pressures compared to the other river reaches in Chicago. Though there are very few vacant parcels, the vacancy rates for commercial and multifamily developments are relatively high and have increased over time. The reach also has no industrial development, which is also distinct from other river reaches in the region. There is future opportunity in the Des Plaines reach to preserve the natural landscape of the reach while continuing to make investments in reducing the flooding and polluting effects of heavy precipitation, as well as support inclusive community and economic benefits that make the reach accessible and affordable.

MPC developed data points to characterize changes along Chicago’s River System between approximately 2015-2025. This page gives a general overview of the ways the area surrounding this reach has, or has not, transformed. For more in-depth data, further analysis, and the sources used for this research, view the complete data sets at the link below.

View River Reach 6 Data Sets

Increasing

Decreasing

Same or similar

Good

Fair

Poor

How has the area changed over time?

2014-2022
Demographics

The population in the Des Plaines river tract remained stable between 2014 and 2022. The population of this reach is relatively small, with just under 7,000 residents, so relatively small changes in the population show a large percentage change. The most notable population change by racial and ethnic group is an increase in the number of Asian residents along the river, which increased by more than 1,000 people, while the population remained steady in adjacent tracts.

Socioeconomics

The median household income, rent, and home value in the Des Plaines reach all mirror the household income and costs citywide. However, the rate in which these costs increased varied.

The Des Plaines reach saw the greatest increase in home values (63%) and household income (72%) of the reaches between (2014 and 2022). By 2022, home values along the river surpassed the home values of homes further from the river in adjacent tracts. Rental costs, however, increased much slower, at 18%, and were the same near the river and adjacent tracts, meaning rental costs along the river followed neighborhood trends.

Inviting Rivers Data

How has the area become more, or less, inviting?

Land Use

Thanks to extensive Cook County Forest Preserves space, the land along the Des Plaines river reach is overwhelmingly open space, taking up a 77% share of land. Unlike reaches in the Chicago River and the Calumet, this reach has no industrial land uses along the river. The area saw a slight gain in multifamily land use, by about 20 acres, as well as a slight increase in institutional uses by about 61 acres.

Physical Improvements

The Des Plaines reach has great trail access primarily through the Des Plaines River Trail. The unpaved trail does not always follow directly along the river, so it covers about 42% of the river’s edge, but it is a connected trail that covers the entire stretch of the Des Plaines reach and beyond, about 16 miles.

The Forest Preserves of Cook County have partnered with communities along the Des Plaines to make major improvements to the trail system over the past decades. The American Indian Center and local partners, as part of the Our Great Rivers Initiative, established the Northwest Trail Outdoor Museum. Read more about both initiatives.

Productive Rivers Data

How has the reach become more, or less, productive?

Office, Industrial, and Multifamily Development

There are few office and multifamily properties, and no industrial properties on the Des Plaines reach. The average sale price ($71) and rental cost ($20) per square foot of office and multifamily property within two blocks of the river is lower than the citywide average in this reach.  Vacancy rates for office and multifamily properties (meaning units in existing buildings that are not occupied) sit at 15% in 2025, a nearly 8 percentage point increase since 2015.

Vacancy  

The rate of vacant parcels, meaning an empty lot without a building, is very low in the Des Plaines reach. In 2022 there were just four vacant lots along the river in this reach.

Jobs and Businesses

The Des Plaines reach and the South Branch reach are the only reaches that saw a decline in jobs between 2012 and 2021. The job loss was relatively low, at just 260 jobs, a 2% decrease. Jobs increased in adjacent tracts, indicating the decrease in jobs was specifically located along the river. The number of businesses decreased at similar rates along the river and in adjacent tracts, following the citywide trend.

Living Rivers Data

How has this reach become more, or less, living?

Water Quality

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) does not collect data on fish in the Des Plaines reach, but does monitor combined sewer overflows (CSOs).  Chicago has a combined sewer system, meaning that sewage and stormwater from rainfall and melting snow enters the same pipe system. When this system is overwhelmed, the combined sewage and stormwater is emptied directly into our river system, polluting the river and increasing the risk of flooding. This emptying of sewage and stormwater into the river system is called a combined sewer overflow (CSO). The Des Plaines reach experiences relatively few CSO events each year. The reach had 152 events between 2016 and 2021. The number of CSO events has declined over time with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s (MWRD) efforts in the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP), that built large, deep tunnels and reservoirs that store stormwater and sewage until it can be treated, mitigating CSO events. The TARP reservoirs that affect this reach are the McCook Reservoir and the Gloria Alitto Majewski Reservoir. The first stage of the McCook Reservoir began operations in 2017. It is located between the Des Plaines River and Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in Bedford Park, and captures stormwater along the Des Plaines River, Salt Creek, Addison Creek, and the Chicago River from the North Branch and North Shore Channel, through the Main Steam, South Branch, Bubbly Creek, to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. This first stage of the McCook reservoir was designed to contain up to 3.5 billion gallons.

The second stage, set to be completed in 2032, has capacity for an additional 6.5 billion gallons. The Gloria Alitto Majewski Reservoir was completed in 1998 and captures sewage and stormwater in the Upper Des Plaines River. The tunnels and reservoirs built under TARP have played a major role in reducing CSOs in Chicago’s water system. The number of CSOs notably declined across all Chicago river reaches and the Des Plaines reach after the McCook Reservoir became operational in 2017. CSO events are complex: the severity of each event depends on the location, amount of impervious surfaces that exacerbate runoff, weather conditions, and other factors. Our region has not seen a complete elimination of CSO events, and some years continue to see more severe CSOs than others. It is important to continue to make ongoing efforts to reduce stormwater runoff and mitigate CSO events, as the effects of climate change, such as the heavy rainfall events we saw in the summer of 2026, continue to pose pollution and flooding challenges to the Chicago region.

Open Space

The Des Plaines River reach is largely composed of open space, with approximately 77% of the surrounding land protected as forest preserve. These connected natural areas provide important habitat for wildlife, support biodiversity, and offer opportunities for people to experience nature through trails, recreation, and environmental education.

Explore the research on other reaches in the Chicago River System below.

Visit river reach pages:
View the complete data sets for each of the river reaches:

Learn more about Our Great Rivers and this Understanding Our Rivers evaluation project.

Methodology

Research Approach

This project examined how areas (census tracts) along the river changed over time, from approximately 2015 to 2025. Data related to demographic, socioeconomic, development, and ecological changes, were compiled to understand how areas along the river transformed over the decade. Trends/variables included:

  • Population changes by racial and ethnic group
  • Rent and home value changes
  • Job, business, and vacancy rate changes
  • Land uses
  • Trails and access points
  • Community projects and activations
  • Fish diversity

In addition to breaking down the river geography at the citywide and “reach”-level scale, we examined data by census tracts based on their proximity to the river:

  • River tracts: Census tracts that touch a river in the city of Chicago
  • River adjacent tracts: Tracts that touch the “river tracts.” Data in these tracts act as a proxy to the nearby neighborhood in order to differentiate general neighborhood trends from findings that are unique to tracts that directly abut the river.
Research Questions

For each data area, we asked the following questions, which allow for a nuanced look at how river areas have developed, when compared to other parts of the city:

  • How do trends/changes compare across specific river areas (aka “reaches”)?
  • How do trends/changes along the river (aka “river tracts”) compare to changes in areas immediately adjacent to river census tracts (aka “river adjacent tracts”, which are the comparison groups)?
  • How do trends/changes along the river compare to changes across the city as a whole (all city census tracts)?

Sources

All sources for this research are listed on the Data Set Factsheets available on each reach page.

Authors

This evaluation project was produced by the MPC staff listed below. It was also developed and supported by Christina Harris, Alec Singer, and Kate Mackie. 

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