Partnership to revitalize Madison St. retail

The Madison-Western Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Garfield Park Chamber of Commerce, and the City Design Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) are among several organizations involved in a partnership to devise a comprehensive plan to develop and revitalize retail along Madison Street from Damen Avenue west to Central Park Avenue.

This stretch of Madison Street, which includes both the West Haven and East Garfield Park neighborhoods, was at one time a very diverse and well-populated business district, consisting of businesses both large and small and characterized by its accessibility to pedestrian traffic, as well as to public transportation.

Today, despite the constant and rapid residential growth of the area, the development of  retail has been slow to follow. Although there is a townhouse and condo boom, there still is a noticeable lack of stores and other amenities, which has resulted in local residents having to do most of their shopping elsewhere.

However, the seeds of a comprehensive plan to develop Madison Street were planted several years ago.

Ernestine King, the executive director of the Greater Garfield Park Chamber of Commerce, explained that around 2003, “we gathered a task force from the community; church leaders, business people, and the residents of the community came together to examine how to put together a plan for a comprehensive revitalization of Madison Street.

“We came up with some notions of what we wanted to look for, to put together this comprehensive plan, and who we would like to hire to put together the plan for us,” King noted.

Alderman Ed Smith (28th Ward), who had already attended several group meetings and had approved the task force, was approached for his opinion about hiring the UIC City Design Center, and he “thought it was a great idea,” King said.

Involving UIC
Involving the UIC City Design Center, which is a non-profit organization consisting of faculty from UIC’s College of Architecture and the Arts, Department of Urban Planning and Policy, staff, and often students, seemed like a perfect way to move the project forward. UIC was approached to be a part of this partnership some time in 2004.

Among the resources that the UIC City Design Center (or CDC) has to offer are, according to staff member and project coordinator Abe Linder, “technical assistance, which includes various types of research” as well as “surveys, topics related to the project, observational research, and primary research; anything that would support a planning or design initiative.”

The “hands-on” research is sometimes done by urban planning students at UIC, who walk through the area involved and see who comes into a place of business and is walking or taking public transportation. The students are able to gauge the community’s needs to a certain degree by doing this, and are able to support their observations with demographic research. In fact, in March of this year, UIC graduate students presented a retail market analysis to a panel of retail and commercial development experts.

Linder stated that “part of the overall research involved in a project is how the design of a neighborhood project might impact on the neighborhood itself,” which would include its present and future residents. As a non-profit, the Design Center is paid a minimal amount in reimbursement for expenses, but provides a wealth of opportunity and experience to UIC students who are studying urban planning and policy. The UIC faculty involved in this project are Brent Ryan, who is one of the co-directors of the CDC and is an associate professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy, and David Brown, an assistant professor in the College of Architecture and the Arts

When it became involved UIC immediately developed a steering team, a group that includes participants from the initial task force, which is fully comprised of volunteers representing the community: old and new residents, business owners, clergy and church members, block club captains, neighborhood leaders, and heads of local organizations.

As the participation in the discussions and planning of retail on what is now being referred to as “The Madison Street Corridor” began to grow, it began to make sense that the Madison-Western Chamber of Commerce, headed by Diane Jones, should be included in and could benefit from this partnership.

In 2005, when the preliminary planning still was taking place, the two chambers of commerce joined forces with UIC, and the committee began to chart its direction.

Community input
King recalled that “we got started in April of this year, and what we wanted to include in the plan was focus groups, with as much community involvement and input as possible. We wanted to have the community lead the process, involving community residents, business owners, churches. We wanted a cross-section of the community to be involved in the process.”

The role of this committee, named officially the ROADMAP committee or (“Retail Opportunities and Design, the Madison Advisory Partnership”) is “to help get ideas and input from the community... to determine what type of retail should go up in that area, based on the needs of the community,” according to Linder.

Thus far, there are at least 60 participants on the committee, and both Alderman Smith and Second Ward Alderman Madeline Haithcock have been supportive and have been regular  attendees at what are now monthly meetings.

The ROADMAP meetings are held at different locations, spread out a bit around the area to accommodate the people who come from both neighborhoods.

Ryan noted the scheduling of three community meetings in total throughout the project, which differ from the ROADMAP committee meetings because “they are open to everyone and occur when there is a certain stage of the planning process to discuss; to review critical issues and get feedback. The first of these meetings was in May, and the second was on Aug. 10.

The August meeting, according to King, was well-attended. All of the participants joined small discussion groups, which were led by facilitators (ministers, active local residents, and the 11th Police District head of the C.A.P.S. community policing initiative), who had prepared specific questions and topics to cover. The facilitator took notes on what each individual participant had to say so that their opinions can be considered.

Linder said “this way, everyone has a chance to talk about the same topics and the same issues, and then we can see if there is a consensus or differences of opinion, and address that.” Ryan noted the key ingredient in these specific meetings “is to get feedback from everyone involved.” One of the conclusions that came out of this meeting is that people are looking for a “family-friendly corridor” that is attractive with retail development that will serve the community well.

King reported that “I’m just impressed and just pleased that we have as many entities as we do involved in this, with the level of participation that we have, and we are constantly reaching out to people to further the process. That’s what we’re excited about: the people coming together and working together on the community process.

People seem to be excited about working together.”

Respecting the process
King summed up the work of the ROADMAP committee, the meetings, feedback from the community, research that the UIC City Design Center participates in, and the work of church groups who help “get the word out” as “the planning process, and at the end there will be a document called ‘The Plan,’ which will be presented to the City to do what they have to do.

“We want to have a meeting with the developers who are in the area already, before the completion of ‘The Plan.’ In the meantime, the regular ROADMAP community meetings are held on a monthly basis, and the word is generally gotten out through word-of-mouth, church and community leaders, and written notices,” King said, noting “there are multiple ways that we distribute the information.

We have a lot of volunteers and some people from the community are hired to go door-to-door with a notice about the meeting, and everyone is invited so there is a nice cross-section of the residents.”

For information on the next ROADMAP community meeting, which is projected to be held sometime towards the end of November, the Madison-Western Chamber of Commerce can be contacted at (312) 942-0586, or the Greater Garfield Park Chamber of Commerce at (773) 722-6650.