Rogers Park: Comprehensive Retail Study 2004
Rogers Park is a Chicago neighborhood located on Lake Michigan on Chicago’s northern border. This dense urban community, home to nearly 60,000 residents in 2000, is conveniently connected to downtown Chicago by bus, train and roadway. Despite recent growth in the neighborhood’s residential real estate market, two of the community’s primary shopping districts remain underdeveloped and suffer from a deteriorating appearance.
Its lakefront property, well maintained housing stock and wealth of transportation access promise to make Rogers Park one of Chicago’s premier communities. However, the community faces a number of challenges. It is located between several of the region’s largest retail destinations, making it difficult to attract new retail amenities. The community has suffered from a long-lasting stigma as an unsafe place to visit. While condominium conversions are bringing new residents to the community they are also threatening to diminish its affordability.
This study was commissioned in August of 2004 by DevCorp North, a community and economic development organization in Rogers Park. DevCorp North represents and serves many neighborhood businesses and administers several of the local Special Service Areas. The City Design Center was asked to create a study for two retail districts that seemingly needed the most attention: those along Howard Street and Morse Avenue. While this neighborhood had been planned for and studied a number of times, few revitalization plans had been implemented. The City Design Center and DevCorp North planning process was initiated to create recommendations that could be put into action using community resources to accomplish community goals.
This study is the second in the City Design Center’s Urban Business Districts Program. The Program was created in 2003 to provide planning assistance for disinvested commercial districts in the Chicago region. The principal product of the program is a comprehensive retail revitalization plan. The Program’s retail planning process incorporates participatory opportunities for the community, and develops an urban design-oriented community plan that stimulates investment, builds the job base and enhances the livability and appearance of the retail district.