CMAP and the Peters Fellowship

The Phillip D. Peters Regional Planning Fellowship Program partners with Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) to provide the annual internship.

CMAP was created in 2005 as the comprehensive regional planning organization for the northeastern Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will.  The organization, located in downtown Chicago, is designed to protect natural resources and minimize traffic congestion as the seven-county region plan for the 21st Century and beyond.

During the 50 previous years, planning for land use and for transportation were conducted separately by two organizations -- the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC), where Phil Peters worked for more than 30 years, and the Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS). Both organizations ceased to exist upon the formation of CMAP. 

By state and federal law, CMAP is responsible for developing GO TO 2040, metropolitan Chicago's first truly comprehensive regional plan.  CMAP projects that metropolitan Chicago will gain 2.8 million new residents and 1.8 million jobs in the next three decades.  The GO TO 2040 planning campaign will develop and implement strategies to address that projected growth.  Scheduled for completion in 2010, the plan will shape the region's transportation system and development patterns, while also addressing the natural environment, economic development, housing, education, human services and other factors shaping quality of life.