December 8, 2005

UIC City Design Center Updates Development Plan for Burnham

The near southeast suburb of Burnham can renew itself by leveraging its riverfront, marina and golf course to attract retail and residential development, according to a plan by the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Fifteen graduate students from UIC's City Design Center conducted a year-long study for a strategic plan to improve Burnham's retail and waterfront districts. Brent Ryan, assistant professor of urban planning, and Rachel Weber, associate professor of urban planning, supervised the study and planning process.

"Burnham's retail was spatially dispersed. It lacked a distinct identity," said Ryan, co-director of the City Design Center.

"Many older Chicago suburbs have codes written for the type of development popular during the 1950s. It's important for them to reevaluate how commercial areas are built to create an attractive, distinct shopping district."

The students conducted site visits, surveyed businesses and customers, and analyzed retail markets to evaluate Burnham's built and natural environments, current and potential retail mix, transportation and fiscal conditions.

They met with village officials and employees to present their ideas, which include new homes along the Grand Calumet River, an expanded marina, a tree-lined boardwalk, a public park, a full-service restaurant, new retail businesses, indoor recreation facilities, more services at the Burnham Woods Golf Course clubhouse, transit-oriented development near the Hegewisch commuter station, and an entertainment and historic corridor.

As recommended by the students, the village recently hired a staff planner to implement such initiatives, said Burnham Mayor Robert Polk. Polk, Ryan and Weber will present the plan to village trustees at a Dec. 13 meeting.

"This administration is eager to pursue initiatives for economic development, and this plan offers fresh, innovative ideas," Polk said.

"Burnham has natural, historic, and recreational facilities and good transportation to strengthen its potential," Ryan said. He noted that the plan allows Burnham to protect its natural areas while enhancing public access to the waterfront. The plan also suggests bicycle paths that would connect the shopping district to the regional Burnham Greenway Trail System.

Weber, an expert on tax-increment financing districts, said a community must assess both its design and its economics to make a business district competitive.

"A planning process that examines either the economic or physical factors alone doesn't address the wide range of issues facing inner-ring suburban communities today," she said.

Weber and Ryan started the City Design Center's Urban Business Districts program in 2003 to aid older suburbs while training student urban planners. The program has produced comprehensive retail plans for Worth, Ill.; Whiting, Ind.; and the Howard/Morse district in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood.

UIC's City Design Center is a research, education, and service program dedicated to design in the public interest. It is part of the College of Architecture and the Arts and is affiliated with the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs. For more information, visit www.uic.edu/aa/cdc/files/home1.html

UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world.

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