Growing Green: Park Forest Sustainability Plan Adopted May 14, 2012

Growing Green: Park Forest Sustainability Plan Adopted May 14, 2012 3 Growing Green: Park Forest Sustainability Plan Adopted May 14, 2012 With technical assistance provided by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and Center for Neighborhood Technology acknowledgements Thank-you to the following community leaders, Village staff, and elected officials who participated in the creation of this Plan. Park Forest Village Board Park Forest Plan Technical Advisory Citizens Advisory Mayor John A. Ostenburg Commission Committee Committee Vernita Wickliffe-Lewis, Chair Cliff Butz Barb Moyle Trustee Bonita Dillard Doug Price, Vice Chair Craig Kaufman Mamie Rodgers Trustee Gary Kopycinski Bruce Whitehead Denyse Carreras Rosemary Piser Trustee Georgia O’Neill Christopher Williams Hildy Kingma Roy Dillard Trustee Kenneth W. Kramer Cynthia Burton-Prete Jason Miller Sergio Rodriguez Trustee Mae Brandon James N. Settles, Sr. Jenise Ervin Tiffani Graham Trustee Robert McCray Marguerite Hutchins John Joyce Terry Lusby, Jr. Ken Eyer Lawrence Kerestes Mary Dankowski Robert Wilcox Rob Gunther Sandra Zoellner Thomas Mick funding acknowledgements CMAP would like to thank the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for funding the development and production of this document. This project is funded through HUD’s Sustainable Communities Regional Planning grant, which supports CMAP’s Local Technical Assistance (LTA) program. TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 Table of Contents Section 1. Introduction 7 Regional Context 10 Previous Plans, Studies, and Reports 14 Demographic Profile 16 Community Outreach 18 Vision Statements 21 Section 2. Plan Recommendations 23 1. Development Patterns 24 2. Transportation and Mobility 30 3. Open Space and Ecosystems 38 4. Waste 43 5. Water 47 6. Energy 51 7. Greenhouse Gases 56 8. Green Economy 61 9. Local Food Systems 65 10. Municipal Policies and Practices 69 11. Education 75 12. Community Health and Wellness 77 13. Housing Diversity 82 14. Arts and Culture 84 Section 3. Monitoring and Reporting 88 Appendices 101 A. References and Resources 102 B. Sustainability Audit of Zoning and Subdivision Codes 109 C. Sustainability Assessment 117 D. Community Outreach Summary 187 6 GROWING GREEN: PARK FOREST SUSTAINABILITY PLAN Central Park Wetlands viewing platform. SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION 7 Section 1 Introduction What is sustainability? Finding a succinct and clear definition of “sustainability” can be a challenging task. As this Plan’s public kickoff meetings demonstrated, sustainability means different things to different people, groups, and organizations. The Three Pillars of Sustainability The term “sustainability” is typically used in one of three ways: The Three “E’s” Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. (Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, 1987) Sustainability requires that any public policy or investment meet certain environmental, economic, SOCIAL EQUITY and social equity goals. Sustainability regards the total wealth of society as natural, human, and man-made capital that should be preserved or increased, in addition to financial wealth. SUSTAINABLE (CMAP Sustainability Regional Snapshot, 2007) Another way to understand sustainability is through the “3 E’s”— environment, economy, and equity. Sustainability can be thought ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC of as the healthy interrelationship between these three areas. Balancing these three “pillars” of sustainability with the need to use resources more efficiently results in a sustainable community. Source: Sustainability Planning Toolkit, ICLEI 8 GROWING GREEN: PARK FOREST SUSTAINABILITY PLAN What is a Sustainability Plan? This Sustainability Plan is a road map for Park Forest to examine Although the economy and equity are addressed within each Plan many different topic areas related to sustainability and the 3 E’s. category, all topics relate back to the environment. For example, For the purposes of this Plan, five key themes have been identified within the subtopic of Education, educational initiatives related as overarching categories: Planning and Design, Natural Systems, to the sustainability of the natural environment are of primary and Energy and Climate relate most directly to the environment, consideration, not the overall functionality and performance of the Economic Development relates most directly to the economy, and Village’s school system. Equity and Social relates most directly to the equity of the Village. Park Forest’s Sustainability Plan includes: Subtopics to be addressed within these major themes are: • A sustainability assessment to establish baseline conditions and compile existing programs and initiatives (see Appendix C). Planning and Design A. Development Patterns • A series of goals, indicators, and strategies for each subtopic area as the plan for moving forward. B. Transportation and Mobility • A detailed implementation strategy. Natural Systems • Monitoring and reporting guidelines to ensure that the A. Open Space and Ecosystems goals of the Plan are realized. B. Waste Sustainability Plans are unique in that they typically include an C. Water emphasis on quantitative measures and data to assess existing conditions and establish targets for improvement. Baseline Energy and Climate indicators (quantitative measures of existing conditions) and target A. Energy indicators (corollary quantitative measures for the Village’s goals) were developed for each subtopic area to give the Village a way to B. Greenhouse Gases measure its progress into the future. Both Village monitoring of Economic Development these indicators and reporting back to the community are important to ensure that Park Forest is achieving its goals and increasing A. Green Economy resident awareness of sustainability-related issues. B. Local Food Systems C. Municipal Policies and Practices Why does Park Forest need a Sustainability Plan? Equity and Social Park Forest has a history of promoting sustainable living and A. Education development, from the long-running farmers’ market in DownTown B. Community Health and Wellness to the compact footprints of its housing stock to the Central Park Wetlands restoration project. The Village also has a progressive C. Housing Diversity history of fostering racial, cultural, and economic diversity and D. Arts and Culture cohesion. To strengthen its sustainability, the Village seeks a more cogent strategy for decision-making in this realm. This Sustainability Plan will serve to: 1. Provide a road map for improving environmental, economic, and social conditions related to sustainability. 2. Bring together existing initiatives and conditions as a baseline for developing strategies and recommendations. 3. Raise awareness about sustainability in the community at large and encourage stakeholders to be involved. 4. Guide government officials in decision-making. 5. Help to shape the Village’s sustainability-related identity and provide justification for related grants and awards. SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION 9 Relationship with the GO TO 2040 Planning Process Comprehensive Regional Plan The planning process to create the Village’s Sustainability Plan has The purpose of this Plan is to provide guidance for local decision- lasted approximately one year and included multiple steps. The making, increase awareness of sustainability-related issues, and process has been crafted with assistance from Village officials and address community needs and desires in an effort to achieve a has been designed to include the input of Village residents, business sustainable future. However, the Village is a part of the larger owners, and others. The key steps in the planning process are Chicago metropolitan economic region and both influences and is illustrated in Figure 1. influenced by the region. A summary of the recently released GO TO 2040 Regional Plan, Public Participation prepared by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), is included in the Regional Context sub-section of I. Introduction. Public participation is a cornerstone of the Sustainability Plan In addition to an overview of GO TO 2040’s themes and policies, planning process. Including input from public workshops; one- specific regional recommendations that are likely to have an impact on-one interviews with community leaders, government officials, on the content of Park Forest’s new Sustainability Plan are identified. and stakeholders; focus groups; and Plan Commission and Village Board meetings help to ensure that the Plan represents the goals, GO TO 2040 states, “municipalities are critical to the success of vision, and needs of the community to create a sustainable future. GO TO 2040 because of their responsibility for land use decisions, To that end, a Technical Advisory Committee (primarily comprised which create the built environment of the region and determine of Village staff) and a Citizens Advisory Committee (primarily the livability of its communities. The most important thing that comprised of community leaders) were established and involved a municipality can do to implement GO TO 2040 is to take this throughout the planning process to gather feedback responsibility very seriously.” By undertaking a planning process to create a Sustainability Plan, Park Forest is taking responsibility In addition to these committees, Village residents, business for guiding its future, and demonstrating its commitment to helping owners, elected and appointed officials, and staff, a number of other shape

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