Tuesdays at APA — November 2007

Regional Water Supply Planning in Northeastern Illinois

November 13, 2007

Residents of Illinois have taken water availability for granted for far too long. With Chicago sitting on the shores of Lake Michigan, it is easy to forget that the Great Lakes are a finite resource. In addition, under the Great Lakes Charter and Annex, much of the growing areas of the region do not have access to Lake Michigan water.

Scott Goldstein of the Metropolitan Planning Council and Martin Jaffe of the University of Illinois at Chicago discussed a new regional planning process currently underway for an 11-county region of northeastern Illinois. Led by staff of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), the Regional Water Supply Planning Group (RWSPG) is working over the next two years to develop a regional water supply plan for the area. Goldstein and Jaffe are members of the group, representing planning, public interest, and academic interests. They provided background on this initiative, presented the scope of the effort, and discussed how planning can bring a unique perspective to protecting this vital natural resource and be a tool to guide land-use decisions.

PDF of PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)

About the Speakers

Scott Goldstein is the vice president of policy and planning for the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), a nonprofit group of business and civic leaders committed to serving the public interest through sensible planning and development policies. He led the strategy to develop and pass the first major update to state planning legislation since the 1920s in Illinois, and was the author and lead negotiator for stormwater management legislation that passed in the spring 2005.

He built consensus for a gubernatorial executive order for regional water supply planning in Illinois, and has organized coalitions that have improved the education funding system in the state. Goldstein received a Master's in Urban Planning from Columbia University in New York, and a B.A. from Tufts University.

Martin Jaffe is the director of the Urban Planning and Policy Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is associate professor within the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs and is a faculty fellow in UIC's Great Cities Institute (GCI), leading GCI's Metropolitan Sustainability initiative.

Jaffe is also an Environmental Planning Specialist for the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University. He teaches land use and environmental law and planning at UIC, is a commissioner on the Wilmette Historic Preservation Commission, and was the principal author of APA's Policy Guide on Water Resources Management. Jaffe holds law degrees from both Wayne State University (J.D.) and DePaul University (LL.M.) law schools, and is a member of the State Bar of Illinois and the Ely Chapter of Lambda Alpha International Honorary Land Economics Society.