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An innovative planning initiative in Aurora and six community groups in Chicago are the first participants in a pilot program designed to support neighborhood redevelopment efforts with training and high-tech tools.

Backed by $675,000 in federal funds, the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission announced Tuesday its Full Circle project to focus some of its regionwide planning expertise and computer firepower on neighborhood concerns.

It's an attempt by the planning agency to address narrow issues important to communities--the need for neighborhood parks, affordable housing for neighborhood residents or better lighting in alleys--even as it pushes ahead with a 3-year-old effort to draft a comprehensive plan for the Chicago area.

One key to the Full Circle project is the development of Internet-based, geographic information system software that will allow neighborhood groups to collect and map details on property in their communities.

"Our role is to give you the tools to do what you already do in your neighborhoods," said Greg Sanders, the planning commission's Internet projects manager, at a kickoff meeting Tuesday with participants in NIPC's Chicago offices.

The Full Circle project is similar to a neighborhood planning initiative begun by Aurora officials in early 2000, mostly as a way for the city to respond to unique needs in its older areas. At the time, some neighborhood groups believed city officials were too preoccupied with planning for new subdivisions or shopping centers.

Attracting sales-tax dollars or wooing major employers often are big issues for officials in Chicago and suburbs. But for residents in the Bardwell neighborhood on Aurora's near southeast side--the first community to participate in the neighborhood planning initiative--the issues were developing youth programs, improving properties by reconverting multiple-unit houses to single-family use and redeveloping the long-vacant site of a former hospital.

"We really want this to be resident-driven," said William Spaeth, Aurora's deputy director of community development. "It should be residents coming forward, saying we have concerns that we want the city to assist us with."

Two new Aurora neighborhood-planning initiatives are under way, and Spaeth said he hopes they will benefit from increased access to the Internet-based information and tools promised by the Full Circle project.

The Chicago groups selected to participate in the Full Circle project are:

- The Albany Park Community Center, which provides a wide range of services on the city's Northwest Side.

- The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, which has been working to develop open space and recreational programs, and confront environmental issues on the West Side.

- Centers for New Horizon, which has worked to provide a broad range of programs for lower-income residents in the gentrifying Bronzeville area on the South Side.

- Bethel New Life Inc., which has developed housing for lower-income elderly and provided other services on the West Side.

- DevCorp North, which works on business and economic development issues in the Rogers Park area on the far North Side.

- Southeast Environmental Task Force, which has been working to preserve and provide public access to environmentally valuable parcels in an industrial area around Lake Calumet on the Southeast Side.

Three of the groups--the Albany Park Community Center, the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and Centers for New Horizon--will receive $60,000 in grant funds over three years. The other participants will receive $30,000 over three years.

1. Two members of each community based organization (CBO) were trained in the basics of GIS by a geography graduate student and by auditing the UIC introductory GIS classes

3. CBO members, working as a team, did a block by block survey of 130 blocks in each community area (more than 50% of the total blocks). The survey placed each property into one of 20 variables that included housing, health, economic, educational, commercial, industrial, recreational, brownfield, and religious categories. Transportation routes were included as were vacant lots and abandoned properties.

4. Each address in the survey was geocoded and mapped into the computers using the GIS/ArcView software. Health Data and Census Tract areas were also mapped out.

5. The results of the mapping were discussed internally in each CBO and is now being used as a basis for economic, environmental and social development. The health and transportation data is being further analyzed in association with the UIC School of Public Health and Cook County Hospital.

6. Contact was made with City, State and Federal agencies about collaborating on data and GIS maps for both community areas. These include the City of Chicago Department of Planning, Housing and Department of Health and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

7. UIC undergraduate and graduate students, some of whom were from the two communities worked with GIS teams that included local high school students and adults in data collection, geocoding and utilizing GIS program

LVEJO used the data collected and mapping to:

• Hold public forums in schools, churches and Boys & Girls Clubs to begin a process of participatory planning in Little Village.
• Shared information with housing developers on empty land parcels in residential areas and buildings available for housing rehabilitation, including The Resurrection Project, The Chicago Housing Authority Scattered Site Housing Program and Chicago Community Home Builders. Six new multiple unit housing developments were constructed and an empty factory was converted into a multi-unit apartment building.
• Worked with three local schools, The Chicago Board of Education and Chicago Public Building Commission to plan and build three school gardens and an eight acre Campus Park. Over 2000 youth and adults participated in the planning, development and evaluation process.
• Facilitated the collaboration of Kaboom!, the Chicago Boys and Girls Club and 100 neighbors to design and construct a park and playground at the Little Village Boys and Girls Club
• Developed a plan for the construction of a plastics recycling factory in an existing industrial park
• Co-Chair the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Community Panel's Ridership Committee from 2001-present. In this role LVEJO has worked with the CTA and other community based organizations to establish 2 new bus routes. We are now working to increase ridership on the rehabilitated Cermak Blue Line, to reestablish night and weekend service and developing a proposal to reestablish the 31st St. bus by the time the new Little Village High School opens in September, 2005.
• Actively participated with the Chicago Public Schools, Little Village Community Development Corporation in the planning committees for the new Little Village High School. LVEJO staff and members participation included initiating and facilitating focus groups of adults and youth in local schools and churches, achieved a construction budget increase based on the per student capital cost, developed the plan for Little Village residents to visit new high schools in the city and suburbs and won approval for a charette design process that was used for community residents to construct models for the new high school.
• Combining the Little Village GIS project with a United States Government Urban Resources Partnership grant, LVEJO facilitated four planning meetings with the City of Chicago Departments of Planning and Environment, the Chicago Park District Alderman Ricardo Munoz to develop proposals for the use of existing open space/brownfields for parks and recreation.
• After presenting its GIS Project at the UIC Great Cities Winter Forum in 2000, LVEJO was not able to continue its GIS project due to lack of funding and the change in career plans of the Geography graduate student who had providing invaluable training and technical assistance to us for two years. We are now seeking funding to revisit our existing data and methods and complete the work started five years ago.

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El Cilantro Youth Newsletter
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