Mitigate the negative impacts of freight on adjacent areas, particularly economically disconnected areas

While providing broad economic benefits, freight activity can have adverse impacts on communities. Truck and rail traffic can cause noise, congestion, air quality, and other negative impacts. Trucks cause heavy wear and tear on locally maintained roads, and at-grade rail crossings can cause delays for motorists as well as difficulty in routing emergency services. Residents may face safety concerns as truck traffic grows in areas that were not designed for heavy vehicles, and these vehicles can bring noise and pollution, as well. Communities in fast-developing areas are facing change that can negatively affect quality of life, or represent a transition from rural to urban. Many freight and industrial facilities also generate low returns from the property taxes and other fees that municipalities can enact, creating a gap between the cost to provide supportive infrastructure or services and the revenues generated. This can create a lag between infrastructure needs and local investment that would direct and improve truck movement and reduce negative impacts on adjacent communities. These cumulative factors often make freight a locally unwanted land use. The recommendation to Target Infill, Infrastructure, and Natural Area Investment in the Community Chapter offers more strategies for protecting agricultural lands as well as for fiscally and environmentally sustainable development and expansion.

The negative impacts of freight activities are of particular concern in economically disconnected areas (EDAs), which have large concentrations in major freight activity centers such as the O’Hare area, the South and West sides of Chicago, the south Cook suburbs, and the Joliet area in Will County. The close correspondence of freight activity centers and EDAs is perhaps unsurprising, but nonetheless highlights the disproportionate location of noxious land uses in low-income communities of color. Freight-adjacent areas often have lower residential property values, which in turn are more affordable to low-income populations. There are many potential environmental justice concerns related to goods movement. In practice, responding to these concerns should be a project- and community-specific effort that actively engages residents and responds to local needs.