{"id":487325,"date":"2026-01-02T15:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/487325\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T15:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:05:12","slug":"chicago-prepares-development-plan-for-industrial-zone-with-priority-for-water-and-wetland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/487325\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Prepares Development Plan For Industrial Zone With Priority For Water And Wetland"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published by Circle of Blue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SOUTH CHICAGO \u2014 For 70 years, from 1900 to 1970, the Calumet River on Chicago\u2019s Southeast Side provided the cooling water, waste disposal, and shipping channel for a dense collection of steel, chemical, and metals manufacturing plants matched in few other regions of the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the last of the plants closed in the late 20th century, Chicago authorities and Southeast Side residents were left with an unyielding and difficult challenge. How would Chicago clean up the river and shoreline lands damaged by decades of industrial discharges from the last century? And what economic and environmental opportunities lay ahead in the 21st century for 10,000 largely vacant acres along the Lake Michigan shoreline and drained by the Calumet River that encompass seven percent of Chicago\u2019s land area?<\/p>\n

Six years ago, Calumet Connect, a group of Southeast Side residents, opened the process for starting to answer those questions. They were joined by key partners like the Southeast Environmental Taskforce and Friends of the Chicago River in urging the city to toss aside convention in considering a new development strategy for the old industrial corridor. What was needed, they said, was a plan to that put the natural setting and water resources front and center. A clean river and the area\u2019s vibrant wetlands would serve as anchors for a new neighborhood and business-friendly economic area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In August, Chicago acted on those ideas and introduced its Calumet Area Land Use Plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the center of the redevelopment proposal is wetland restoration and easy citizen access to the Calumet River and Lake Calumet, the largest body of water in the Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we would really like to see is a future for [the Calumet River] that protects ecology better, protects the water quality, and a transition based on the community\u2019s vision,\u201d said Adam Flickinger, planning director for Friends of the Chicago River.<\/p>\n

\"GreatThe Great Lakes Towing tugboat \u201cNebraska\u201d assists the Canadian freighter \u201cLake Superior\u201d at the FedNav cargo terminal near the mouth of the Calumet River in Chicago, IL. The boat had unloaded steel for use in finishing mills in the Chicago and northern Indiana area. Archive photo 1997: J. Carl Ganter\/Circle of Blue<\/p>\n

Big Vision<\/strong><\/p>\n

Achieving those goals is as difficult as anything Chicago has ever sought to master.<\/p>\n

As a working river and lifeline of commerce and labor in the Midwest, the Calumet River forms the natural boundary between Indiana and Illinois, and a key waterway connection to Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. For its strategic proximity to Lake Michigan and its large deposits of coal, limestone and clay, the Calumet River has also served as the infamous home of Chicago\u2019s heavy steel and cargo shipping industries.<\/p>\n

Comprising six Chicago community areas of East Side, Hegewisch, Pullman, Riverdale, Roseland and South Deering, the Calumet Region was once home to four major steel mills operating along the Calumet River: U.S. Steel South Works, Wisconsin Steel, Republic Steel and Pressed Steel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For this reason, the Southeast Side is considered Chicago\u2019s industrial corridor and nicknamed by locals as \u201cSteel City,\u201d with the Calumet River being privately owned and zoned for industrial use.<\/p>\n

Amid the height of Chicago\u2019s steel belt era, the city of Chicago also made an unprecedented move to reverse the flow of its rivers\u2013a decision intended to protect precious drinking water in Lake Michigan.<\/p>\n

In 1922, the construction of the Cal-Sag Channel reversed the Calumet River in order to divert sewage and pollution from entering the great lake and improve both water quality and barge traffic along the river.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite city efforts to protect Chicago\u2019s drinking water, the eastern branch of the Calumet River still empties into Lake Michigan through the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, leaving Calumet communities vulnerable to pollution and sewage, according to Friends of the Chicago River planning director Adam Flickinger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA large part of the Calumet river system does still connect to our drinking water, because it flows into Lake Michigan, everything north of the locks down there near Hegewisch Marsh,\u201d Flickinger said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a really essential area to get right. That environmental justice lens that just simply still remains is so concerning, that communities are being heavily burdened by pollution. And the city needs to address that urgently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residential proximity to a century of heavy industry has resulted in long-term contamination of the water, air and soil in the Southeast Side.<\/p>\n

Lead poisoning, asthma, skin rashes and other related illnesses are prime health concerns among residents in the Southeast Side, according to a Calumet River Planning Framework<\/a> by the University of Illinois Chicago Great Cities Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the highest rates of asthma in the city,\u201d said Yessenia Balcazar, senior planning manager of the Southeast Side Environmental Taskforce. \u201cEven just within the Southeast Environmental Taskforce as an organization, so many of us have family members that have respiratory illness and lung cancers. It\u2019s so prevalent in the whole community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"manAlliance of the Southeast organizer and local resident Sam Corona presents about ongoing brownfield sites at Calumet Park in Chicago\u2019s Southeast Side on July 17. This is one of a handful of environmental justice tours that Corona and the Alliance of the Southeast host each summer to highlight priority toxic sites and environmental injustices in Chicago\u2019s industrial corridor. Photo \u00a9 Christiana Freitag<\/p>\n

A Toxic Tour Of The Southeast<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a humid summer afternoon in July Sam Corona, a Southeast Side resident and activist, leads two dozen Chicagoans on a tour of his community. Corona\u2019s tour is part of the Alliance of the Southeast\u2019s environmental justice tours, an effort to expose Chicagoans to key toxic sites along the Calumet \u2013 sites that have plagued residents like Corona of environmental injustices for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stepping off a tour bus at William Powers Park, Corona quizzes the group on their geographic knowledge of Chicago\u2019s far southeast neighborhood.\u00a0\u201cWe have something that other parts of the city of Chicago don\u2019t have,\u201d Corona said. \u201cWe have three lakes. How many of y\u2019all knew that the city of Chicago has three lakes within it? No, no, nobody?\u201d<\/p>\n

Corona explains that the Southeast Side is home to not just to the impressive Lake Michigan, but also to Wolf Lake and Lake Calumet \u2013 an industrial waterfront operated by the Illinois International Port Authority that\u2019s been notoriously inaccessible to residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cLake Calumet has been reserved and cut off for industry because they like to use our waterways,\u201d Corona said. \u201cThey think that they are the only people that should have access to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe built more than 40% of the skyline that makes Chicago iconic,\u201d Corona added during July\u2019s tour. \u201cIt was built and made on our shorelines, and now with what we\u2019re left behind, we\u2019re buried alive in pollution because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Superfunds Of The Southeast<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corona isn\u2019t exaggerating. Over 460 toxic brownfield sites exist on the Southeast Side and in Cook County\u2019s south suburbs, according to an analysis by the University of Illinois Chicago<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among hundreds of these post-industrial contaminated sites, the community is also home to three EPA Superfunds, a federal designation reserved for the nation\u2019s most contaminated properties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These three Superfund sites\u2013Lake Calumet Cluster, the Schroud Property and the Acme Steel Coke Plant\u2013also reside within the 10,000 acres of land that the city of Chicago hopes to redevelop in its land use plan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Superfund sites can take decades to remediate, posing an ongoing ecological and public health threat to the community, according to Balcazar. She and the Southeast Environmental Taskforce are key local liaisons for the EPA and have pushed for remediation on behalf of her\u00a0community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. EPA\u2019s Press Officer David Shark provided Circle of Blue with updates on each of these sites. The Calumet Cluster Sites, which have been on the Superfund Priorities List since 2010, won\u2019t determine the next phase of the cleanup process until spring 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Schroud Property, locally nicknamed as \u201cCoal Hills,\u201d was listed as a Superfund in 2019. Remedial investigations will continue into spring 2026 before clean-up efforts can even begin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And finally, the Acme Site, the newest Superfund designated as of March 2024, is only beginning its remedial investigations of the site as of early 2026, said Shark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of feelings, like can\u2019t we make this go a little bit faster,\u201d Flickinger said. \u201cIt really just needs to be cleaned up so that it cannot continue to contaminate the water.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Flickinger noted that the clean-up of the Schroud Property is of particular interest for the Friends of the Chicago River as the toxic site connects directly to Indian Creek, the only connection point between Wolf Lake and the Calumet River. The site is not only close to residential homes, Flickinger said Schroud threatens the habitats of beavers and fish near Indian Creek.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the way [the EPA] remediates the property depends on the future use,\u201d according to Flickinger.<\/p>\n

The Southeast Environmental Taskforce is pushing for community input on what they hope these sites will become \u2013 especially since the EPA\u2019s remediation plans will depend on understanding how the land will be used going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur priority for all three [superfund sites] is socializing these sites and bolstering that community engagement around them,\u201d Balcazar said.<\/p>\n

So how does the Southeast Side envision Calumet\u2019s future while legacy pollution remains unresolved?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Balcazar said that in the cases of both Schroud and Acme, locals are eager for more green spaces, especially due to the sites close proximity to existing marshes and parks like William Powers Park. She said this community consensus has affirmed that habitat conservation is aligned with the wants of nearby residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of this, Balcazar and the Southeast Environmental Taskforce spearheaded the Calumet Connect, a collaborative of 12 environmental justice organizations, in 2019 to push the city of Chicago to modernize its land use plan for the Calumet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group hoped this would be the first step towards manifesting a future for the Calumet River with open space and waterfront access as a priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On August 6, the city of Chicago Department of Planning and Development (CPD) presented its draft land use map for the next 20 years, for an area roughly four times the size of downtown Chicago, said Luke Mich, city planner at CPD.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Lagging Land Use Plan\u00a0<\/p>\n

Community advocates were united in their view that it needed more work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"2025A design map created by the city of Chicago\u2019s Department of Planning and Development shows the designated land uses in 10,000 acres of Chicago\u2019s Calumet Region. The proposed designations was presented during a community meeting in August 2025 to mixed feedback, including concerns from advocacy groups like the Southeast Environmental Taskforce that the land use plan still emphasizes land for heavy industry over open public spaces. Credit: City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development<\/p>\n

CPD outlined its land designations for the 10,000-acre Calumet area. The map is designated into five categories: (1) open space and recreation, (2) neighborhood mixed-use, (3) commercial and light industrial, (4) moderate industrial, and (5) heavy industrial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To Balcazar and the Calumet Connect, though, the map\u2019s remaining emphasis on heavy industry, like freight use, is a disheartening move by the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had very high hopes with this process and the outcome of what the plan would be,\u201d Balcazar said. \u201cWe wanted a pivot from heavy industry. We no longer wanted to see that even considered in the land use plan. And unfortunately, it\u2019s still a huge big chunk of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although Mich emphasized that this is a move forward toward creating more \u201cbuffer zones\u201d between heavy industrial and non-industrial areas like parks and residential homes, Balcazar and the Calumet Connect view this as a failure on the city\u2019s part to move beyond its priority on heavy industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For one, environmental groups and locals were pushing for more public access to Lake Calumet, as it remains completely cut off from lakefront access and has served as a major freight port for the Illinois International Port District (IIPD), connecting the movement of goods between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, while the city works on its land use plan, the Illinois International Port District has also adopted its own master plan<\/a> in 2022, concerning the 1,800 acres of property at Lake Calumet for freight operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) advised on the master plan, with an emphasis on growing the Port\u2019s already 19 million tons of cargo moved annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is to strike that balance and make sure that the Port can still continue their operations as an economic driver for the region, and maybe even over time, improve that and continue to bring in more money as the freight industry continues to grow,\u201d said CMAP principal planner Tony Manno. \u201cAnd find the right places for people to explore, the parts of that area that are safe to explore and interesting to explore, and make sure that the residents down there have a voice in what improvements are made.\u201d<\/p>\n

This property, however, is also situated within the city\u2019s Calumet Area Land Use map, leaving community advocates like Balcazar uncertain about whether the Port\u2019s master plan will impact the city\u2019s land use goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has also been a point of confusion, because [Lake Calumet] is the Port Authority property,\u201d Balcazar said. \u201cThere isn\u2019t alignment between the two [plans], and between the two, there has been some favoring to what the Port Authority has put out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the city of Chicago moves forward with its land use designs, Balcazar said that the Calumet Connect plans to issue a complaint brief in the coming weeks, expressing its concerns with the city\u2019s emphasis on industry despite misalignment between the Port Authority\u2019s plans and input from advocacy groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about what actual land uses are going to be changed or incorporated that\u2019s gonna actually pivot the status quo of what this geography has been, which is heavily inundated by industry,\u201d Balcazar said. \u201cAnd [the land use map] is just not indicative of those things, of public access, of public health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next phase of the Calumet Area Land Use Plan will be focused on gathering feedback from groups like Calumet Connect on the design guidelines and implementing the plan by summer 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the compliant brief, Balcazar is pushing for intervention on these plans before the city can begin the implementation phase next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Accessing the Calumet\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite dissatisfaction with the city\u2019s land use designations, Calumet Connect is taking matters into its own hands when it comes to riverfront access.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within the boundaries of the proposed Calumet Area Land Use, Balcazar said her group is focused on a small sliver of green space on the western banks of the Calumet River between 96th and 100th streets. By next August, this site will offer Southeast Side residents a first-of-its-kind access to the river they call home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be the first time that residents ever get to access [the Calumet River] recreationally, or just get to be near it,\u201d Balcazar said. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity that has never been given to Southeast Side residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like so much of the Calumet story, the 100th Street Project<\/a> is lakefront property owned by industry\u2013in this case, People\u2019s Gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the two-year lease would finally give residents direct access to their working river, said Balcazar.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She hopes this is the first of a movement to reclaim access to the Calumet waterways and justice for her environmentally-overburdened community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city of Chicago is what it is, in a large part, due to the Southeast Side,\u201d Balcazar said. \u201cWe had to get that short end of the stick while the rest of the city gets to thrive because we were set aside for that [industrial] purpose. But now what? Now we need that shift. Now we need that change in narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by Circle of Blue. SOUTH CHICAGO \u2014 For 70 years, from 1900 to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":487326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,75268,746,1322,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-487325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-collaborations","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115826126142330308","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}