Guidelines for Prevention: Creating River Corridor Development Standards for the Chicago River

When Friends of the Chicago River was founded 30 years ago, among our core objectives was protecting and restoring habitat and promoting the concept of a continuous Chicago River trail. At the time people thought we were crazy because the river was fenced off and polluted. Today, the Chicago River is emerging as one of Chicago’s finest features with millions being spent by the public and private sectors to capture the wild beauty that this historic river brings to our urban and suburban communities.

To address the new enthusiasm and protect the river from its new attention, in 2008 Friends of the Chicago River launched an initiative to develop design guidelines that promote river sensitive redevelopment. The River Corridor Development Standards (RCDS) project is intended to educate developers and planners about responsible riverfront design and reward them for employing best management practices (BMPs) that protect or improve habitat while promoting greater public access. RCDS will also help change Friends’ own public oversight dynamic from a reactive Chicago-only focus to a proactive watershed-wide one that complements national environmental initiatives such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and focuses on recommending technologies that specifically result in a cleaner, healthier, more accessible Chicago River.

To start the process, Friends developed a task force of volunteer subject matter experts who attended a series of meetings where we discussed the potential for and value of riverbank naturalization, habitat, stormwater management, trails and public access. The goal was to incorporate what really works into a tool that will make participation in RCDS efficient and useful, while considering business needs and economic implications.

Together we determined that the program should focus on promoting and rewarding four main objectives:

• hydrologic functions that address the impacts of stormwater including flooding and water quality degradation,
• ecologic functions that include protecting and enhancing both in-stream and upland habitat,
• quality of life functions which result in public areas that provide a connection with nature, safe sanctuaries, and green open space, and
• "marketability" including selling points and incentives that not only benefit the Chicago River, its people, plants and animals, but also the business community including residential, commercial and industrial.

Values will be set for criteria that promote river-friendly design and developers will be able to self score their projects.

In addition to the criteria that provides for impact and an understanding of appropriate BMPs, RCDS will include:

• an award program that publicly recognizes those who choose river friendly design,
• an on-line river wiki where professionals can update information on what really works,
• protocols for long term site management, and
• professional certification for river-sensitive design experts.

"Having a tool like the River Corridor Development Standards will help developers and designers attain a new level of integration between their sites, the river, and the community," said Stephen Prassas, president of Prassas Landscape Studio." And, despite an abundance of environmental resources, green technologies specific to site development along urban riparian corridors are lacking. Friends’ RCDS will provide a resource that is specific enough for the Chicago River that its impact with substantial. In addition, when the standards are complete it will be easy to extrapolate the ideas to other urban watersheds."

The program is set to launch informally this winter with the first recognition ceremony and publication of the BMP toolkit set for 2010.

Article by Margaret Frisbie, Executive Director, Friends of the Chicago River. For more information on the River Corridor Development Standards project, please contact Caitlyn Bolton, watershed projects coordinator at 312-939-0490 ext. 14 or via email at cbolton@chicagoriver.org.