The Next Plans

Developing responsive and flexible plans for the region

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is collaborating with stakeholders to prepare successors to the ON TO 2050 comprehensive plan. CMAP’s planning efforts are shaped by its dual responsibilities under state and federal law. The Illinois Regional Planning Act requires CMAP to conduct comprehensive planning that integrates land use and transportation, while incorporating the interplay with economic development, the environment, air quality, energy consumption, and other important factors that influence quality of life in northeastern Illinois. Also, federal rules governing all metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) require CMAP to plan for the long-term needs of the regional transportation system, including regular assessment of its function, condition, fiscal health, and capital investment priorities. Since 2005, CMAP has met these state and federal responsibilities by adopting a single, large-scale regional comprehensive plan along with subsequent updates.

CMAP is pursuing a new approach to fulfill its state and federal responsibilities, which takes advantage of the significant progress and direction provided by ON TO 2050, while shifting away from the agency’s prior model. The current plan was developed with a thirty-year horizon and provides enduring value for guiding many regional decisions. Several of its strategies and recommendations continue to speak to the region’s ongoing needs, while others no longer meet current demands. Acknowledging this reality, CMAP is evolving its regional planning approach to make it more dynamic and responsive to changing conditions.

Regional Vision

CMAP is developing a regional vision that will guide planning activities — with future action plans and strategies tailored to challenges in transportation, climate, and the regional economy — in the next 5 to 10 years. The focus is on stating unequivocally what the region must do together and why it matters to residents, while providing policy guidance on how we can approach subsequent strategy development. Together, these plans will replace ON TO 2050 over time and collectively serve as the region’s comprehensive plan.

This new approach offers a chance to think differently about how CMAP works with regional coalitions on multiyear strategic initiatives. The process will engage partners and the public in horizon-based thinking around issues that span local boundaries. The vision will incorporate:

• Updated analysis on important regional topics
• Scenario planning to prepare for future uncertainty
• A new statement of values to enable principled decision making in difficult situations
• Extensive community visioning on what remains important to the region’s residents

In developing the regional vision, CMAP will work with stakeholders to refine and reassert principles on issues where process-level disagreement can slow progress, including accessibility, climate and the environment, economic opportunity, fiscal capacity, freight, housing choice, land use, transportation, safety, and more. This will include collaborating with government and civic partners to align on regional values, priorities, and commitments so that northeastern Illinois can go further and faster together, addressing enduring and future challenges.

CMAP staff is currently scoping and initiating the planning process. The regional vision will be presented to the CMAP Board and MPO Policy Committee for adoption in late 2027. Check back and sign up for CMAP’s newsletters to stay up to date on opportunities to envision a better future for northeastern Illinois.

Regional Transportation Plan

CMAP is also shepherding the development of the 2026 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) for northeastern Illinois. In partnership with local leaders, transportation agencies, community organizations, and the public, the RTP will build consensus on transportation goals, objectives, strategies, and investment priorities that will guide transportation decision making and infrastructure funding in the region. It will also build on the transportation vision set in the region’s current comprehensive plan, ON TO 2050. In accordance with federal rules, the RTP must identify how the region will manage, operate, and achieve goals for a multimodal transportation system — including transit, highway, freight, bicycle, pedestrian, and accessible transportation.

The RTP will answer three key questions: What is the transportation system the region wants? What are the challenges and opportunities to get there? And how will the region implement the system it wants?

To answer these questions, the RTP will identify:

• Long-term vision and goals for the region’s transportation system 
• Performance targets that measure progress on RTP goals 
• Policies that guide decisions and actions for both CMAP and transportation implementers 
• A financial plan that identifies how the region will pay for investments 
• A strategy to prioritize regionally significant transportation investments 
• Other elements required by federal law 

The RTP involves close collaboration with our transportation partners and is informed by research, technical analysis, policy development, and community outreach. The final RTP will be presented to the CMAP Board and MPO Policy Committee for adoption in October 2026. Stay tuned for opportunities to contribute to this long-term blueprint for our region’s transportation system by signing up to our transportation newsletter or engaging with the RTP team online.