GO TO 2040 calls for strategically organizing the region around its existing and emerging clusters of specialization to better compete in the national and international marketplace. The plan directs CMAP, with the support of its partners, to perform “drill-down” analyses into specific industry clusters, including freight, advanced manufacturing, and biotech/biomed.  CMAP has... Read More

To plan for and ultimately preserve a connected network of open space, GO TO 2040 recommends that the region use a “green infrastructure” approach to land conservation, and CMAP has been working with Chicago Wilderness, a regional alliance of organizations involved in conservation, to do just that. Chicago Wilderness developed the “ Green Infrastructure Vision ” planning project in 2004... Read More

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy recently released Rethinking Property Tax Incentives for Business , a report that analyzes the effectiveness of economic development incentives such as property tax abatements and tax increment financing (TIF).  The report outlines several findings, including that the proliferation of property tax abatements has reduced their effect on economic... Read More

The long-awaited transportation reauthorization bill Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21 st Century Act (MAP-21) passed the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives on June 29, 2012.  The full text and summary document of the conference report are available on-line.  The following Policy Update details some of the specific programmatic and policy areas of the bill and... Read More

Late on Wednesday, June 27, 2012, top congressional negotiators announced they had reached an agreement to reauthorize and finance federal transportation programs through September 2014.  The conference report was filed early in the morning on Thursday, June 28, 2012; the full text and a summary document are available on-line.  According to an article from the Hill, the... Read More