Last Wednesday before 800 people in downtown Chicago’s Millennium Park, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) unveiled a vision for the Chicago region’s future called “GO TO 2040,” a document that lays out a roadmap for the future of the city of Chicago and the metro area toward a more sustainable future.

GO TO 2040 serves as the region’s first comprehensive plan since Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. CMAP spent five years compiling the plan with direct input from thousands of residents across the region, resulting in a compelling vision of the future and concrete steps needed to realize it.

Obviously, a large component of the document focuses on transportation planning, where they echo many things T4 America believes about the future of investing in transportation, like using limited funds more wisely, repairing existing transportation assets first, making all investments transparent and accountable, increasing access to different travel options, and making sure that housing and jobs are planned in concert. From the plan:

Our region’s congestion is already among the nation’s highest. Without new approaches, it will only increase due to the projected growth of our population, jobs, and traffic. Current revenues are not keeping up with maintenance and operation costs. Underinvestment and deferred maintenance have strained our transportation system, leaving us with aging infrastructure that is deteriorating in some places. As a region, we need to make better use of existing funds and identify new sources of revenue that will encourage more efficient travel patterns.

…Our seven-county region needs to take better care of existing roads and transit while strategically investing in the transportation system to reduce congestion, strengthen our communities, and foster a robust economy.

Making our system “world class” is not simply a matter of raising taxes to generate more revenue, nor is it about massive expansion of the system. Instead, the primary goal is to prioritize spending on maintenance and modernization, which will account for more than 97 percent of the proposed transportation funding over the next three decades.

Compared with some other long-range plans, CMAP set fairly modest and realistic goals, such as completing the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway and building a western bypass around O’Hare International Airport. The plan also says the CTA’s Red Line should be extended south from 95th Street to 130th Street and a transportation center should be put in the West Loop to improve transfers among rapid transit, buses and all types of rail services. There’s a clear call for a national freight plan to keep the economy moving without choking the region with traffic (echoing our Blueprint) and other recommendations include improving several Metra and transit service.

At first many critics of the plan felt it was too conservative “We know the (funding) resources just aren’t there to do everything there is to do,”said  Randy Blankenhorn, Executive Director of CMAP, echoing the call for investing wisely and with more accountability. “We have to invest what we have more wisely and focus on improving the economy and the environment.”

However the following day, the Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded a $4.25 million Sustainable Communities Regional Planning grant to CMAP to help implement GO TO 2040.

Senator Durbin, pictured, spoke at the event, saying in statement, “GO TO 2040 is a forward-thinking plan that will help Chicagoland maintain its position as one of the nation’s foremost economic and cultural centers. Today’s funding will give GO TO 2040 more resources to achieve their goal of helping the nearly 300 communities around Chicago create and implement a comprehensive plan for a sustainable future,” he said.

As the Metropolitan Planning Council States: “GO TO 2040 is both a milestone and a breath of fresh air. Livable communities with ample open space, housing choices, and efficient use of water and energy. Economic and educational innovation to cultivate our region’s human capital. Tax and investment policies that lead to efficient governance and investment of public dollars, not just spending. A transportation system that moves people and goods where, when and how they want to go, greatly enhancing our regional mobility.”

Senator Durbin and Randy Blankenhorn were joined by Gary Hanning, Secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation, Sam Skinner, former USDOT Secretary, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Gerry Roper, President and CEO of Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and John Canning Jr. Chairman, ExecutiveCommittee of Chicago Community Trust.

Tuesday’s briefing, titled “Planning for a Better Future: Lessons from the States on Regional Sustainability Planning” featured experts from three regional laboratories on transportation reform – Sacramento, CA; Salt Lake City, UT (right); and Minneapolis, MN.

The American Planning Association and LOCUS, an association of pro-reform real estate developers, co-hosted the event at the Capitol Visitors Center on Tuesday afternoon.

Regional blueprints, or plans, outline a long-term transportation vision for a region. Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPOs, typically have jurisdiction over this process, alongside partners at the county and municipal level. One objective of these plans is to lower greenhouse gas emissions through measures like increased transit use and building new homes near jobs.

“Comprehensive, but bottom-up” is how LOCUS President Christopher Leinberger, the event’s moderator, describes a potential direction for federal policy. In essence, the federal government would provide the funding and set the benchmarks, while regional planning authorities make allocations and are expected to achieve significant reductions in emissions.

Panelists stressed that their primary focus is on increasing choices – in transportation and housing – for all Americans. The recent economic recession was fueled in part by an over-supply of single-family homes on large lots. And while ample demand exists for mixed-use development on smaller lots, a combination of lagging infrastructure and policy restrictions have prevented the private sector from moving to meet that demand.

That is why the engagement and support of the business community is so critical.

Natalie Gochnour is the Chief Operating Officer for the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce. Her group’s seat at the table and engagement with a strategic and sustainable vision for the Salt Lake City area led to championing a sales tax increase to pay for 70 miles of light-rail for seven years.

“My message is this: don’t underestimate business community support for new ways of seeing and new ways of doing,” Gochnour said.

Michael McKeever, Executive Director of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, cited a similar dynamic in his area, where the Sacramento Area Chamber of Commerce helped push the blueprint concept in its early stages and has hailed the region’s long-range plan as a signature accomplishment.

Both Sacramento and Salt Lake City have seen substantial increases in transit usage and decreases in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) since beginning to implement their blueprints.

Commissioner Peter McLaughlin of Hennepin County in Minnesota addressed successes in his region as well.

T4 America Director James Corless emphasized that there was no “silver bullet” in regional sustainability planning, but that providing benchmarks and the required funding would result in substantial leaps.

Communities should be asking, “what do we want to look like in 25 years?” Corless said. “That’s the fundamental question.”