Park Forest is Growing Green!

Park Forest has a legacy of living and growing sustainably.  Now, this south suburban community is embarking on an innovative effort to create a village-wide sustainability plan.   Village residents, business owners, community leaders, and other stakeholders are invited to attend a special community event to shape the plan.     

More than 160 people participated in the first set of public kick-off meetings, which served to define a sustainable vision and goals for Park Forest. The next public meeting will build on those efforts to define priorities and identify implementation strategies to make the vision a reality.   The meeting will feature an interactive web-based tool to help gather participant preferences on transportation options, local food, energy efficient homes, and other important sustainability related topics. 

Sustainability Plan Public Workshop

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Dining on the Green Banquet Hall

349 Main St.

Park Forest, IL 60466

This event is free and open to the public. The evening includes a meet-and-greet session from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.  For more information, please contact Rosa Y. Ortiz at rortiz@cmap.illionois.gov or (312) 676-7464.

The creation of the Park Forest Sustainability Plan is being made possible by technical assistance from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) through funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  

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, CMAP began partnering with the first wave of 62 local governments, nonprofits, and intergovernmental organizations selected for assistance.  Like the Fairmont area 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:  Pete Saunders, 312-386-8654 or psaunders@cmap.illinois.gov