Office high-rises west of the Loop and residential re-use of buildings downtown would be encouraged while public transportation would undergo dramatic improvements under a draft plan for the central area of Chicago.
The document, the result of two years of study by civic and business leaders under the auspices of the Daley administration, would help reshape the heart of the city and set its development course for decades to come, according to sources familiar with the proposals.
“I think it is very much a blueprint for building the economic core,” said one member of the Central Area Plan Steering Committee, which began brainstorming in mid-2000. “It balances all the uses.”
A key recommendation in the draft calls for development of office towers for the first time in the area between the Kennedy Expressway on the west and Metra’s two big rail terminals, Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center, on the east.
“That is where the buildable land is, and that is where the transportation is,” said an urban expert who is familiar with details of the plan.
In selected locations elsewhere downtown, old office buildings would be recycled into apartments and condominiums, increasing round-the-clock activity in the area. A prime example would be the corridor along South Michigan Avenue, where views of Millennium and Grant Parks and Lake Michigan offer strong residential appeal.
Development of new open spaces also would be encouraged downtown under the draft plan. Steering committee members discussed, for example, possible future acquisition of the site now housing the Ft. Dearborn postal station, 540 N. Dearborn St., and its conversion into a park.
On the public transit front, the draft plan calls for new dedicated busways, including a leg that would be built under Monroe Street from Clinton Street east to Michigan; a segment on Lower Wacker Drive; and another stretch running parallel to the North Bank of the Chicago River on an old railroad right-of-way.
The public also could board buses on a new roadway, recently opened for use by charter buses carrying conventioneers, that runs along old Illinois Central Railroad tracks between downtown and McCormick Place.
The proposed busway network would allow commuters and visitors, for example, to be whisked from Metra’s West Loop terminals to the Michigan Avenue area without having to battle the congestion that plagues existing Chicago Transit Authority routes.
“The beauty of this `bus rapid transit system’ is that, to the extent it is a grade-separated system, it is not stuck in traffic,” said the urban expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Also recommendedis a new subway link that would be built under Clinton Street.
A final plan, with provisions expected to be very close to those in the draft, is to be released next week.
