UPDATE:
The final plan was unveiled in November 2018 at a celebration attended by more than 300 residents and community stakeholders.
From a hub of industry to a base for the northern civil rights movement, North Lawndale is a culturally rich neighborhood with unique architectural character and historic significance. Located on the west side of the City of Chicago, North Lawndale is less than three miles from Chicago's Loop. Wide boulevards and long blocks, remnants of concentrated industrial development, speak to the neighborhood's history as a thriving manufacturing and residential center. While North Lawndale's more recent past has been one of population loss and disinvestment, the community's proximity to the Loop, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Illinois Medical District bolster its potential as a desirable location for residential and commercial investment. For more demographic information, view the North Lawndale Community Data Snapshot.
Community-based revitalization efforts are improving North Lawndale's physical and social infrastructure and highlighting the neighborhood's many assets. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) and the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council (NLCCC) collaborated through CMAP's technical assistance program to develop a neighborhood plan that builds upon the community's valuable assets, as well as past and current planning efforts, to complement and continue these efforts.
The North Lawndale community was the focus of the plan, but the plan also acknowledges planning activities in adjacent communities, including Little Village, the Near West Side, East and West Garfield, Austin, and Cicero. Recommendations help position North Lawndale stakeholders to share resources with nearby communities for projects along mutual borders.
Key areas of emphasis for the plan include, but are not limited to: transit oriented development, economic development, Ogden, Roosevelt, and 16th Street Corridors, Douglas Park, as well as changes that are already occurring in the neighborhood such as the Homan Square development.
The planning process consisted of five phases to be completed over 18 months, with guidance from a project steering committee made up of stakeholders in the community. The first phase was initial meetings and extensive community outreach to ensure that a broad spectrum of stakeholders was engaged in the project. The second phase involved an analysis of existing conditions, using information and public input gathered by CMAP staff in collaboration with the NLCCC. A visioning workshop to help develop a shared vision of the neighborhood's future was held in the third phase. The fourth and fifth phases built on previous phases to develop recommendations and create the North Lawndale Neighborhood Plan.
