Shaping the future of the Windy City.

Metropolitan Planning Council and the City of Chicago - Engagement

Launching a master plan for the third largest city in the nation requires collaboration. When the Metropolitan Planning Council and the City of Chicago announced their first citywide planning process for the Windy City since the 1960s, we convened and facilitated a series of virtual stakeholder workshops to engage a cross-sector group of 80 Chicago stakeholders to hear from other cities around the country and collaboratively outline what should come next. All Together designed the final report as a workbook to begin aligning needed partnerships and resources, engage participants to continue shaping the planning process, and serve as an engagement tool for future phases of the We Will Chicago Plan. We remained involved in the process, as part of the consultant team for Phase 2. We designed and facilitated 90 “pillar” conversations that have included over 250 residents, industry experts, and community volunteers. The resulting framework is part of a broad network of community engagement efforts running through 2022. We Will Chicago. Together.

And then, we led community engagement for the City’s Downtown Plan, which came out of the We Will process. We planned and hosted pop-ups throughout the City, including in the South and West sides, convened hundreds of people in workshops, and led the launch of the survey that received over 10,000 responses.