Public Meeting on June 13 for Lake County Sustainability Chapter Project

Lake County is committed to promoting a sustainable environment that enhances its vitality and its residents’ quality of life. To that end, the County is amending its Regional Framework Plan to include a Sustainability Chapter, which will provide the structure for achieving the County’s sustainability goals. As part of this effort, the County is inviting local residents, business owners, community leaders, and other stakeholders to attend a public meeting. This is an opportunity for the public to share their thoughts about how the County should achieve a sustainable future.

The public meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 13, 2012, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Lake County Central Permit Facility, 500 W. Winchester Road, Libertyville, Illinois 60048. At this public meeting, the County wants to hear attendees’ ideas about what the Sustainability Chapter should address.

For more information or to RSVP, please contact Jessica Simoncelli, CMAP Associate, at jsimoncelli@cmap.illinois.gov or (312) 386-8631.

The Lake County Sustainability Chapter will cover topics including land use and development, transportation, water, waste, energy, open space, economic development, and more. 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 Lake County, including help with public participation and chapter development.

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 Lake County 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