In late 19th century America, the construction of elevated rapid transit lines, commuter railways, and urban subways brought real estate and business development in their wake, and contributed to the build-up of residential neighborhood, amusements, industries, and businesses in and around our cities.

In Chicago, the Ravenswood “L” was built to bring thrill-seekers to a race track.

In the heyday of Chicago’s Stockyards, elevated trains served all of the major meatpacking companies on the South Side.

In the 1890s, the Lake Street L ended at Lake and Homan, overlooking Garfield Park, the park designed to emulate New York City’s Central Park.

Today, Chicago can boast of seven rapid transit lines, and the Chicago metropolitan area is served by ---- Metra commuter rail lines.

And as people have rediscovered the benefits of city living, housing and real estate developers have realized that building in proximity to “good public transit connections!” is an amenity that attracts the interest of renters, homebuyers, and many businesses.

Today, transit oriented development (“TOD”) is a land-use and in-fill urban revitalization philosophy that promotes the concentration of housing and commercial development close to existing transit infrastructure. Since the early 1990s, the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group has been a vocal advocate of TOD. Many transit agencies around the nation are pro-active advocates of TOD. Chicago has lagged behind, but because of the advocacy of community development corporations, community groups, environmentalists, and promoters of the “New Urbanism” movement among urban planners and architects, there is growing interest in TOD in our metropolitan area. NCBG urged both CTA and Metra to adopt Transit Oriented Development Guidelines.

Local Examples of TOD

• On the City's West Side, Bethel New Life, Inc. has taken the lead in developing affordable housing along the Lake Street branch of the Green Line, and is planning a Transit Center with a daycare facility at the Pulaski station. For more information, call (773)826-5540.


• On Chicago’s Southeast Side, the South Chicago community’s commercial district has benefited from the relocation and modernization of a Metra commuter station with an expanded “Park’N’Ride” facility. Contact the Southeast Chicago Community Development Commission for more information: (773) 731-8755.


• On Chicago’s North Side, in Rogers Park, the Howard Avenue station is undergoing renovation as part of a larger community revitalization project. For more information call DevCorp North at (773) 508-5885.


• Metra, the commuter rail line, has also worked with suburban developers to build mixed-use, housing and retail developments around its stations in several suburban communities. For more information, contact Lynnette Ciavarella at Metra: (312) 322-8022.

The Urban Land Institute

The Urban Land Institute is another valuable source of information on transit oriented development and urban revitalization. Known as “ULI” and founded in 1936, it is an association of practitioners engaged in urban planning and real estate development from both the public and private sectors. Its mission: to “provide responsible leadership in the use of land in order to enhance the total environment.” In plain English, ULI researches and advises both private-sector real estate developers and government on land use planning and housing and commercial development in our cities. Its members have organized themselves into “district councils” in 40 major U.S. metropolitan areas.

In Chicago, local “notables” who have been active in ULI include Charles Shaw, who spearheaded the development of new mixed-income housing in Homan Square on the City’s West Side, and Robert Belcaster, a developer who served as the President of the Chicago Transit Authority (1992-1995). Most recently (2001), the City of Chicago sought ULI’s help in re-thinking City Hall’s approach to redeveloping a prime piece of Downtown Chicago real estate, the notorious “Block 37” on State Street.

ULI is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a staff of 100 and an annual budget of $27 million. ULI has sponsored the publication of hundreds of reports, including scores of case studies about individual cities and their redevelopment challenges, as well as guidelines and recommendations on transit oriented development, urban design, and a movement known as “the New Urbanism” which has promoted a return to our cities and in-fill development in older urban neighborhoods.

In 1994-95 during the reconstruction of the CTA Green Line, the CTA, its Community Advisory Panel for the Green Line Rehab Project, and the City of Chicago invited the Urban Land Institute to provide an Advisory Services panel to help Chicago study the potential for transit oriented development along the Green Line. Their study affirmed what the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group--and the Community Green Line Coalition that NCBG organized—had said all along: Our neighborhood transit lines are lifelines along which the City should encourage the concentration of in-fill development of neighborhood shopping, employment, and affordable housing.

To order a copy of ULI’s report, Chicago’s New Green Line (1995), go to www.ULI org. You’ll also find a wide array of other related studies available through their on-line “Bookstore.”