Chicago has unveiled a draft of its first citywide framework plan since 1966, charting how the city intends to become more equitable and resilient. The plan, titled We Will Chicago, is led by neighborhood stakeholders, artists, community partners, and city agencies. Having launched in 2020, the draft framework is now seeking public feedback before completion and presentation to the Chicago Plan Commission in early 2023.

The framework describes itself as “the first planning process in the City’s history that acknowledges the past as much as the future.” To that end, the plan seeks to address systemic declines which have arisen from previous plans, policies, and market forces, including structural racism, poverty, depopulation, and health disparities. The plan also seeks to enable the city to “survive, adapt, and rebound in the face of chronic stresses and acute shocks like climate change and pandemics.”

The draft plan consists of eight focus areas known as 'planning pillars': Arts & Culture; Civic & Community Engagement; Economic Development; Environment, Climate & Energy; Housing & Neighborhoods; Lifelong Learning; Public Health & Safety; and Transportation & Infrastructure. In total, the plan includes nearly 40 goals and 150 objectives across the eight categories.

As part of the plan’s Environment, Climate & Energy pillar, the city will seek to create development codes for new building technologies, prioritize the reuse of materials in construction, and support the development of urban agriculture. Meanwhile, strategies to maintain and strengthen green space in the city will include expanding the urban tree canopy, acquiring open space for improved mobility, and strengthening sustainability requirements for infrastructure.

Within the plan’s Housing & Neighborhoods pillar, the city will seek to preserve and maintain existing affordable housing while constructing new units which give attention to marginalized groups and universal access. The plan also seeks to increase neighborhood density and vibrancy through prioritizing redevelopment of vacant land and buildings, focusing future growth and density around transit and commercial nodes, and enhancing public spaces, schools, parks, and public infrastructure in underserved communities.

Separately, the plan’s Transportation & Infrastructure pillar includes a goal of reconnecting and supporting communities that have been historically harmed or divided by inequalities in past infrastructure decision-making. The plan will also prioritize infrastructure that is aesthetically inviting, with spaces that are “calm, protected, and safe for people walking, using transit, biking, and making connections between transport nodes.”

Feedback on the draft plans can be submitted before November 1st via the plan’s official website.

News of the draft plan comes days after the Chicago mayor’s office released renderings of three redesign proposals for the city’s Soldier Field. In June, Northwestern Medicine unveiled plans to construct a $100 million outpatient center in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood, while the city’s hosting of the 2022 AIA Conference saw former President Obama deliver remarks on the intersection of inequality and sustainable design.