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Airport
This proposal was developed in the early 1990s by the City of Chicago for a new airport on the city’s southeast side, an area long abandoned by industry and in decline. The goal for this massive 10,000 acre plan was for brownfield redevelopment, re-use of existing infrastructure, and provide vitality to an area overlooked for decades.
The bullet diagram shows multi-airport systems are best developed close to the users; study revealed that alternative proposals for a greenfield, ex-urban site were unprecedented in the American market. The design won recognition from the American Farmland Trust as a leading effort to stop sprawl and conserve farmland.
The proposal was a large land management plan to address many difficult site conditions. Each issue was separately studied at length, its solution then integrated into a master plan. Existing conditions and solutions are shown.
The existing site was a vast complex, degraded urban brownfield. Attractive wetlands and natural preserves were interspersed among wastelands, without any central planning. Abandoned industrial sites mixed with isolated residential communities, unable to sell their homes.
The complex project involved multiple political and geographic boundaries. It was ultimately endorsed by key political figures in Chicago, and the states of Illinois and Indiana. A memorandum of agreement was reached between most all parties, but even with key support, the extraordinary proposal was not passed by the Illinois legislature and was subsequently withdrawn.
Key to the project proposal was extensive community engagement and information release. Significant efforts were made to open hotlines to the general public; affected communities were heavily surveyed in person to determine their goals for the future and develop solutions that met them.
Study was done of how the overall region would develop over the next 25 years with both an urban infill airport, contrasted with a greenfield site. The design was based on two forecasts, a conventional optimistic one and another significantly more conservative.