Growth of the Chicago region has reached unprecedented levels. From 1970 to 1990, the population of the region grew only about four percent, but the region consumed 46 percent more land for housing, and an astonishing 74 percent more land for commercial and industrial use. Since 1990, population growth has taken off - growing 4.1% - as much in five years as the past twenty. If land use consumption continues at its prior rate, the region will double again in size by the year 2005.

Metropolitan Planning Council has developed an in-depth understanding of regional issues and ideas for a healthy regional future through its Regional Cooperation Initiative (RCI). RCI is based on the concept that regional cooperation can best be approached by creating opportunities to work together on concrete issues that affect the metropolitan area.

Introduction
In January 1996, the Metropolitan Planning Council joined with Canal Corridor Association (CCA) and the City of Lockport to form the Living with Growth project. The council's purpose in co-sponsoring the project was to test a model technique which uses community participation to manage growth at the local level. These local decisions can affect growth through land-use and building regulations. Further efforts will be needed to test the technique on a larger, metropolitan level and build consensus among communities to work on regional issues that cross local boundaries.

Lockport Forecasted to Double in the Next 10 Years
The project focused on the City of Lockport. Founded in 1836, Lockport was the site of the headquarters of the original Illinois and Michigan Canal Committee and the strategic center of the canal. Lockport developed as an industrial satellite City of Chicago until its recent boom of residential growth. Currently planned is an extension of a major tollway that, if built, is likely to permanently impact the community and fuel even more growth. Lockport's population has grown from 9,401 in 1990 to 11,090 in 1994 and is expected to double in size to over 26,000 residents by the year 2010.

Recent changes in elected leadership and the desire to embark on a Comprehensive Plan added to the need to develop a consensus vision for the future.

Community Leadership
In early 1996, Mayor Richard Dystrup appointed a "Local Steering Committee" for the purpose of guiding the Living with Growth project. On the Committee were representatives from the Parks Department, Police and Fire Departments, local schools, Planning Commission, City Council, local Economic Development Commission, Chamber of Commerce, Main Street program, and other community leaders. The Committee met several times to guide the project and plan community outreach. Members of the Committee were given cameras to document the built environment of their community and share their visual impressions, both positive and negative. The project was also presented to the full City Council for endorsement prior to the public process.

The Visual Preference Survey
Nelessen Associates, of Princeton, New Jersey, was hired to conduct the Visual Preference Survey, a technique pioneered and trademarked by the firm's principal, Anton Nelessen. As he told the Chicago Tribune, "We don't consider ourselves planners or architects. We are facilitators of what people think. This is what we call design by democracy." The survey asks for both local decision-makers and the general public to choose what they would like their community to look like in the future.

After extensive community outreach and news reports, nearly 100 Lockport residents came to Lockport East High School on April 25, 1996, to participate in the survey. The residents represented a cross-section of Lockport - from long-active leaders to young families who had recently moved to the city. During the survey, they viewed and ranked 180 slides of housing, commercial buildings, street scenes, parks and civic buildings. Residents were asked to assign scores of -10 to +10 to each image. Results were then tabulated and analyzed by Nelessen.

The results in Lockport were different from any of the hundreds of other surveys that Nelessen has conducted around the nation. No image received a negative mean score, and none received higher than a ranking of four. Furthermore, the average standard deviation was approximately plus or minus five.

The results surprised Nelessen, who stated that the wide differences in opinion among Lockport residents must make governing in the community "interesting and hairy." There were, however, elements of consensus which could be derived from the survey and which were agreed upon during a design workshop with local leaders, just two days after the survey.

Design by the Community
Approximately 35 people returned for the five-hour design workshop on Saturday, April 27, including several representatives of the City Council, Planning Commission, Mayor Dystrup, community leaders and local residents. The workshop included interpreting the results of the survey and working in small, diverse groups to design future growth for Lockport. Elements of consensus from the survey and ensuing workshop were:

1. Open spaces were ranked among the high-

September 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 21

est images. Highly designed, more urban open spaces as well as natural images ranked highly. The community preferred designing a mix of connected open spaces along with preserving existing resources such as the Illinois and Michigan Canal. 2. Mixed housing types, from single-family to multi-family were preferred if they related to the street with porches, noticeable front entries, benches and picket fences. Housing with large, prominent garages in front were ranked lower.

3. Historic buildings, even if needing maintenance, were valued by the community.

4. Civic buildings and schools of traditional styling and constructed with indigenous materials such as limestone, were ranked highly.

5. Planning should be done to promote neighborhood scale developments. Neighborhoods should include a mixture of uses from housing to small stores and offices to schools and community buildings.

The workshop also included the opportunity for participants to translate their vision onto maps of Lockport and surrounding areas. The groups mapped out six new mixed-use neighborhoods, defined gateways, commercial space and downtown revitalization and balanced the new development by protecting open spaces with natural or historical significance.

Next Steps for Lockport
Follow-through to the survey and workshop is essential to make a physical impact on the future of Lockport. The next step will be to adopt a servies of planning principles. From there, a new Comprehensive Plan is being called for by the Mayor. The plan should address the consensus elements listed, as well as include images for what the community envisions for the future. There also needs to be a continuing, strong element of community participation in the development of a Comprehensive Plan.

Implications for the Chicago Region
Lockport residents deliberated over some of the most pressing issues on their doorstep: unprecedented growth in land development, the need for a commercial tax base, preservation of the viability and character of their historic downtown and nearby neighborhoods, growing traffic congestion, the need for affordable housing, and pressure on schools for funding and growth. Through the use of the Visual Preference Survey, the City of Lockport developed a consensus to guide the City's future development. Equally important, residents felt that they had a voice in their community's development.

These same issues are surfacing throughout the Chicago region. Not only will community dialogue be necessary to identify solutions, but issues such as transportation, housing, economic development and fiscal policy are regional in nature, and demand regional solutions. Through the Regional Cooperation Initiative (RCI), the Metropolitan Planning Council has identified a series of interrelated actions necessary to create a competitive region and to nurture a sense of regional community. The Council is working on the implementation of proposals ranging from creating a tax system that enhances regional cooperation, to promoting an integrated regional approach to transportation and land use planning, to developing a leadership group whose goal is to foster a widely held sense of regional citizenship.

Page 22 / Illinois Municipal Review / September 1996