FAQs

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is the regional planning agency for northeastern Illinois. CMAP serves seven counties, 284 municipalities, and over 1,200 units of government—the third largest metropolitan region in the United States. The agency was established in 2005 with the mission to plan comprehensively for economic prosperity and quality of life.

Most recently, CMAP and its partners developed and are now implementing ON TO 2050, a new long-range plan to help the seven counties and 284 communities of northeastern Illinois implement strategies that address transportation, housing, economic development, open space, the environment, and other quality-of-life issues. To learn more about CMAP, visit www.cmap.llinois.gov.

With funding from a Sustainable Communities Regional Planning grant by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), CMAP initiated the Local Technical Assistance (LTA) program in 2010. The program involves providing assistance to communities across the Chicago metropolitan region to undertake planning projects that advance the principles of ON TO 2050.

Since the program’s creation, CMAP has funded over 200 local planning projects, helping to build local capacity, engage marginalized groups, empower local governments to develop solutions for difficult community challenges, make critical decisions, and connect local partners to implementing agencies and capital funding for infrastructure investments.

The LTA program is currently funded by the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, HUD, Economic Development Administration, Illinois Department of Transportation, Illinois Attorney General, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and Chicago Community Trust. For more information, see videos that give an overview of the LTA program and "Planning Locally for Livability."

A Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) is a document in which traditional zoning and subdivision regulations are combined with other desired city regulations, such as design guidelines. UDO's can assist with the following:

• Implementation of a Comprehensive Plan
• Regulation of land development and redevelopment
• Update zoning, subdivision, and sign codes
• Fully integrate regulations into one document
• Provide opportunities for community engagement
• Make zoning regulations more accessible and understandable

Zoning regulations control how a piece of land may be developed or redeveloped in the future. It sets standards for a building’s location on a lot and the uses allowed as well as parking, signage, and landscaping. The update of Oswego's Zoning Ordinance will refine these standards and modernize the regulations to make them easier for property owners to use.  

The purpose of zoning is to allow local authorities to regulate and control land and property markets to ensure complementary uses. Zoning can also provide the opportunity to stimulate or slow down development in specific areas.