Image of Southbank development on the South Branch of the Chicago River, in Chicago.

Friends works with river-edge property owners across the Chicago region to guide innovative site planning that enhances the health of the Chicago-Calumet River system for people and wildlife.

For example, Friends secured Chicago’s first river protection ordinance in 1983 and was instrumental in the creation of the original City of Chicago River Corridor Development Plan (1999) which codified required setbacks and landscape treatments along the river. Today, communities have even more advanced tools for implementation of river-edge improvements such as the updated 2019 version of the Chicago River Design Guidelines (2019) that provide a catalogue of best practices for river-edge development.

 
Image of Cougle Foods development along the South Branch of the Chicago River.

Our work continues to be important today, with increasing development pressure on river edge sites. We work closely with private and public property owners to ensure that each new development emphasizes a blue-green corridor approach. 

Our priorities for river-edge developments are:

• Habitat creation, protection, and enhancement.
• Stormwater capture and infiltration through nature-based solutions.
• Avoidance of potentially river harming or polluting uses.
• Welcoming and safe public access to the river's edge and the waterway for recreation.
• A continuously connected river edge trail system.

Friends advocates for appropriate river-edge development through:

1. Individual collaboration with property owners, design teams, and developers.
2. Serving in an advisory capacity for plans, policies, developments, and projects such as co-facilitating the City of Chicago’s River Ecology and Governance Task Force and the update to the Calumet Area Land Use Plan and Design Guidelines.
3. Utilizing the volunteer expertise of professionals from the fields of design, development, construction, planning, engineering, ecology, and marine recreation to promote innovation and river edge development best practices. 

Resources for river edge development:

• Friends of the Chicago River’s Developer  Resource Guide
• City of Chicago River Design Guidelines
• Calumet River Design Guidelines
• Waterfront Alliance's Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines (WEDG)
• Friends of the Chicago River's Map Gallery

Questions regarding Friends’ river edge development advocacy can be directed to our Planning Director, Adam Flickinger at aflickinger@chicagoriver.org.

River Edge Development Tracking Map

Friends’ River Edge Development Tracking Map is an informal web map used to track ongoing developments throughout the Chicago-Calumet River system. This is a key tool for advocacy that our planning team maintains regularly.

Note: The Friends of the Chicago River is committed to providing this tool to our partners, volunteers, and the public for general information purposes. However, Friends of the Chicago River cannot guarantee the quality, content, accuracy, or completeness of the information, text, graphics, links, and other items contained on its web map. All data visualizations on maps should be considered approximate. Friends of the Chicago River is not responsible for the content of any off-site pages that are referenced by this web map.