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Coalition calls for halting NDLSD redesign project
A coalition of organizations issued a strong statement today opposing the current plans for rebuilding North DuSable Lake Shore Drive (NDLSD) as proposed by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and its project team.
The coalition — comprised of organizations dedicated to sustainable transportation, regional planning, and environmental justice — emphasizes that the project represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the lakefront and address critical challenges facing the city and region. The current proposal, unfortunately, largely maintains the status quo, missing a crucial chance to create a more sustainable and accessible future.
Here’s the statement from the coalition:
Statement from advocacy organizations on proposed plans to rebuild North DuSable Lake Shore Drive
As advocates for sustainable transportation and environmental justice, we are writing to express our strong opposition to plans for rebuilding North DuSable Lake Shore Drive (NDLSD) as currently proposed by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and its project team.
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not only reimagine our lakefront, but also to address some of the most pressing challenges facing our city and region.
Despite this window of opportunity, the current proposal, called ‘The Essential,’ will largely rebuild the highway as it currently exists.
We are in danger of missing the chance to seize this moment and chart a course towards a more sustainable future.
We envision a lakefront that is universally accessible and provides everyone with improved mobility options that will reduce transportation related climate impacts and pollution while also easing congestion and enhancing quality of life. We also envision a lakefront that is planned holistically, integrating through-running transit improvements along the entire corridor, and considering the impact of new and planned lakefront developments. This vision is especially critical for people poorly served by our existing transportation and park system, including people with disabilities, older adults, and young people.
We know the NDLSD project team has been working for years doing their best to solve the complex problem that they have been given. With projects like this there will always be tradeoffs that have to be made and competing interests and visions to be balanced.
Over the course of the NDLSD project, it has become clear we are trying to solve the wrong problem for the world we live in today and that the balance has shifted too far toward maintaining the status quo. Furthermore, over the course of the project, residents’ requests for improved transit and enhanced walking, rolling, and biking options have gone unheard. Individuals, organizations, and elected leaders have all called for the project to be reframed around a new, more comprehensive vision for our entire lakefront that will reduce transportation emissions and encourage more walking, rolling, biking, and public transit usage, while also protecting our water supply and enhancing our treasured parks.
We are calling on our leaders to take the following actions:
1. Pause the current planning process. IDOT should not present a ‘preferred alternative’ at the currently planned August 8 public meeting. In recent months, both houses of the Illinois General Assembly passed resolutions calling for a non-highway alternative, and more than a dozen members of Chicago City Council have expressed their opposition to the project’s current trajectory. Over the course of the project, thousands of residents have voiced a desire to see more robust walking, biking, and transit options. The proposed plan fails to address this clear signal for a new approach from the public and our elected leaders.
2. Restart the process with a broader vision for our entire lakefront and new leadership. We need a broader vision for the future of our entire lakefront that goes far beyond highway planning. It is critical that the community’s long-term vision for the future of our city’s most precious natural resource, its largest park network, and one of its most critical transit corridors are fully developed before planning and engineering begin.
Plans for large-scale redevelopment on or near the lakefront, such as the proposed Bears Stadium, the Obama Presidential Center, the former Michael Reese hospital site, the Michigan Avenue ‘Magnificent Mile’ corridor, and the former US Steel site will have a dramatic impact on how people use and access the lakefront.Given the scale and complexity of the project, Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, or another similar entity, will be more effective at leading a comprehensive and integrated approach that factors in other ongoing development and land use plans.
3. Ensure the project supports existing city and regional climate and transportation goals. Over the past ten years, the city and region have set myriad new goals to address carbon emissions and improve climate resilience. Likewise, new plans to expand our network of dedicated bus lanes and make rapid transit universally accessible have come into being recently.
The corridor plan should explicitly support the City’s goal to reduce carbon pollution and double transit ridership.IDOT’s own survey data shows that 60% of NDLSD drivers would take transit if it was more reliable and frequent, a huge potential to shift people to more sustainable transportation options.
But this can only be accomplished through dedicated space on the roadway for transit, such as bus-only lanes, bus rapid transit, or light rail transit. In fact, NDLSD is identified as a key corridor for the Chicago Department of Transportation’s and Chicago Transit Authority’s Better Streets for Buses plan for transit priority streets, but current plans limit transit improvements to only the access ramps
Shifting trips to transit–a much safer form of mobility than auto travel–would also support the City and IDOT goals to reduce crashes and improve roadway safety. Added transit capacity would also improve accessibility to transit for people with disabilities who are poorly served by existing transit service, especially during peak hours when the rail system is often too crowded to accommodate people who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices.
4. Commit to an accelerated timeline. The scale of this project is massive. We know the project team has been given a challenging task and many dedicated professionals have spent years working towards this milestone. We can and should set a clear timeline for completion for a reinvigorated planning process to avoid another decade of engagement and discussion.
We know changing course is hard, but it is imperative we have visionary leadership in this moment. We in the advocacy community are ready to support a new vision for our lakefront and the NDLSD project. We hope you will work with us towards that end.
Sincerely,
Access Living
Active Transportation Alliance
Better Streets Chicago
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Chicago Bike Grid Now!
Clean Power Lake County
Commuters Take Action
Environmental Law and Policy Center
Metropolitan Planning Council
North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council
Promontory Point Conservancy
Sierra Club Chicago
Urban Environmentalists
(Stay tuned — more organizations are currently in the process of joining this coalition.)
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