Using laptop computers and the keypad-voting technology that has become familiar to millions of television viewers, about 100 west suburban officials, community leaders and residents convened in St. Charles on Monday to play a no-money version of what might be dubbed “Who Wants to be a Regional Planner?”
With Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission Executive Director Ronald Thomas acting as host, the “players,” mostly from Kane County, participated in the first in a series of workshops for a three-year process to formulate a strategic plan for the region.
A similar three-hour session is set for Wednesday for DuPage County at the College of DuPage Student Resource Center, 425 22nd St., Glen Ellyn.
Additional sessions featuring participants from Will, Lake and McHenry Counties also are scheduled for this week. A final round is set for April in Chicago and suburban Cook County.
Called “Common Ground: A Blueprint for Regional Action,” the community-based planning initiative is groundwork for a major electronic town meeting scheduled for later this year. At that meeting, the planning issues and priorities identified Monday will be aired during a video-teleconference linkup across the region.
The issues identified during round-table sessions in the Kane County Judicial Center included economic growth, community development, transportation and infrastructure, natural resources and the environment, and quality of life in the region.
“This is the beginning of a multiyear planning process,” Thomas told the participants, who included County Board members Jan Carlson (R-Elburn), Penelope Cameron (R-Aurora) and Mary Richards (R-Aurora).
“This is the real beginning of defining the content of a regional plan” that could serve the six-county region for 50 years, he said.
NIPC is attempting to reach beyond the groups, such as elected officials and community organizations, that are typically involved in setting the planning agenda to include such non-traditional participants as teenagers and young adults.
As described by Thomas, the “Common Ground” project will be different because of its emphasis on being “community-based, citizen-driven, comprehensive and integrated.”
“We want to begin with community goals and build a [long-term regional] plan from there,” he said. “This is generally going to be a consensus-based process. We need agreements to have a successful regional plan.”
By using keypad technology similar to that popularized by the TV game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” Thomas said it is NIPC’s hope that workshop participants will recognize more quickly the similarities and differences of opinion within their communities when identifying planning priorities.
“Sometimes you can spot a trend … that can be anticipated before it shows up in [planning] data,” Thomas said of the instant polling method.
Using the keypad, the Kane County participants indicated they are very optimistic about the Chicago region and committed to helping fashion a vision for the future.
About 30 percent listed the need to strike a balance between the economy and the environment as the most important challenge facing the region in terms of economic development. Another roughly 30 percent cited the region’s tax structure for funding government as a major hurdle to be overcome.
More than half listed a lack of affordable housing and an imbalance between jobs and housing as major challenges to successful community development. Assuring the maintenance of the region’s water quality and supply topped the list of challenges they identified under the category of natural resources planning.
