Planning Programs and Projects

The RTA and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) partnered together with Elevated Chicago, a collaboration of 17 public, private and nonprofit organizations, to develop two implementation action plans, one in the Washington Park area surrounding the Garfield CTA Green Line station and the other near the Logan Square Blue Line station. The assistance focused on CTA station access, traffic and circulation, community safety, equity, placemaking, economic development and beautification. Public outreach was conducted to generate public interest and engage partners to identify implementable actions.

Trinity Services provides transportation service to individuals with disabilities in Cook, Grundy, and Will counties. Transportation will be provided for trips to developmental training centers, shopping, doctor's visits, volunteer opportunities and work.

The RTA assisted the Village with updating the zoning code for its Village Center TOD area in an effort to enable the type of development envisioned in its TOD Plan. A new Village Center designation was created with modernized parking requirements, allowable number of dwelling units per acre, allowable land uses, and revisions to the development review process.

The RTA provided assistance to the Village in soliciting guidance and advice from development experts through a half-day discussion panel. This panel discussed the development climate and potential strategies to prepare for and attract development to specific parcels near the Cary Metra station. The Final Report is attached.

This project assisted the Village with implementation efforts as recommended in their recently adopted TOD plan that was funded through the Community Planning program. A developer panel was conducted with the goal of assisting the Village with several redevelopment sites identified in the plan. Future redevelopment of these sites will capitalize on the proximity to exiting transit facilities as well as help strengthen the vitality of downtown River Grove.

The RTA assisted the City to update its TOD Plan that was completed in 2005 for areas surrounding the Pace Harvey Transportation Center, including the Metra station, the Pace Transportation Center, the adjacent civic campus and points west to connect to residential areas and the University of Chicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital. The plan addresses population loss and ways to leverage improvements underway at the Metra station and Transportation Center to rebuild the downtown population through higher-density, transit-supportive, quality infill development.

This project provides new sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian signal heads along a one-and-a-half mile section of Golf Road, improving access to three Pace fixed routes that operate on the corridor (#209, #606, and #757). Several major employers are located on this corridor and it has also been chosen by Pace as a potential Arterial Rapid Transit (ART) route.