MPC originally focused on advocating for quality affordable housing for low income families in the City of Chicago. Over time, MPCs issue areas have expanded to ensure that the metropolitan Chicago region becomes: 1. A SUSTAINABLE REGION with planned coordination of infrastructure investments, housing and job growth, and natural resource preservation. 2. An EQUITABLE REGION in which all individuals, families, and businesses have access to quality jobs, housing, transportation and recreation choices. 3. A globally COMPETITIVE REGION with growing economic vitality as a result of sound public and private investments and tax policies. MPCs reputation is built upon its track record of thoughtful policy development, solid and independent information, and practical analysis. Since the late 1990s, MPC has conducted much of its policy promotion, or advocacy, through coalitions and campaigns organized to build public awareness, recruit and link proponents, and seize near-term opportunities. In the early 2000s, MPC ramped up its policy implementation, or on-the-ground technical assistance, to implement innovative solutions in local communities confronting growth and development challenges, as well as build the capacity of local communities to apply sound, proven strategies. Some of MPCs achievements from the organizations history include: X Helping create the Chicago Housing Authority in 1937, a national model in its early years. X Helping create the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) in the 1960s and restructure it in 1983 and again in 2008. X Helping pass the Lakefront Protection Ordinance, ensuring no commercial development along the downtown lakefront (1972). X Pushing successfully for the states first ever per pupil foundation funding level (1997). X Organizing the Campaign for Sensible Growth (1998-2007), which played a significant role in securing new state incentives for sustainable development. X Publishing the Regional Rental Market Analysis (1999), a landmark study that documented the Chicago regions rental housing shortage. X Designing an employer-assisted housing model (2000) that has helped over 1,300 people become homeowners and is now being replicated around the country. X Helping the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus craft the regions first Housing Action Agenda (2002) and the state of Illinois with its own first housing plan (2005). X Adding rail freight modernization and transit-oriented development to the regions infrastructure priorities. X Securing support for the creation of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (2005) and partnering with the agency to develop the regions first growth plan. X Helping several MPC Community Building Initiative partners advance MPC recommendations, including St. Charles establishing an inclusionary zoning ordinance and Joliet approving and investing in its Quality of Life Plan

Since 1934, the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) has been dedicated to shaping a more sustainable and prosperous greater Chicago region. As an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, MPC serves communities and residents by developing, promoting and implementing solutions for sound regional growth.

MPCs intermediate (three- to five-year) goals derive from its long term vision of a sustainable, equitable and competitive region. These intermediate goals include: Federal, state and regional governments establish goal-oriented, right-sized and coordinated investment policies that guide and reward complementary local actions. Technical capacity of local governments to implement regional plans is increased. Regional governing agencies are strengthened by greater local collaboration, state and federal support of regional plans, and implementation of demand management strategies. Private sector leadership and investment leverage resources and innovation to advance MPC goals and prioritize interjurisdictional partnerships. MPCs projects support its long-term and intermediate goals; they include: Interjurisdictional Collaboration: MPC works with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus (MMC) and other stakeholders to create collaborations across municipal and other boundaries to build local capacity, promote efficiencies, and develop community economic development strategies to support housing opportunities, mixed-use development, energy-efficiency retrofits, & transit-oriented developments. Federal Investment Reform: MPC, in conjunction with the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), the Regional Transportation Agency (RTA), and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), have published recommendations and highlighted successful case studies of federal-metro partnerships that exemplify our goal-oriented, right-sized, and coordinated goals. MPC and its partners are demonstrating how new approaches can achieve more competitive, sustainable, and equitable regions, while providing recommendations for programmatic change at the national, state, and local levels. Community Building Initiative: The Councils on-the-ground technical assistance to communities and stakeholders includes focusing on interjurisdictional efforts underway in South and West Cook County; deploying the Corridor Development Initiative planning process in various communities; partnering on Technical Assistance Panels with ULI-Chicago; and working with a cluster of communities to develop strategies to ensure sustainable water supplies throughout Illinois. Employer-Assisted Housing(EAH): This program engages and supports employers to outsource housing benefits for their workers. MPC works with regional municipalities, employers, nonprofit housing experts, and public agencies to customize and launch EAH programs, provide technical assistance, and promote business advocacy on housing and related issues. In addition to a regional EAH focus in northeastern Illinois, MPC consults to organizations around the country on EAH start-ups, spearheads federal policy opportunities, and supports a Chicago-specific initiative with the Chicago Housing Authoritys Plan for Transformation. Housing & Community Development Policy: MPC works as an advocate, advisor, and partner with multiple local and national organizations, such as CMAP, MMC, Governors Housing Task Force, ARRA Coordinating Council, Neighborhood Stabilization Program Coordinating Council, Regional Home Ownership Preservation Initiative, Transportation 4 America Campaign, Brookings Institution, and National Housing Conference. The goals are to promote community planning to balance housing needs, close the jobs-housing mismatch, and advocate for federal incentives to increase workforce housing options nationwide. Transportation & Land Use Policy: This advocacy, outreach, and education effort is focused on balancing transit, roads, and freight movement, minimizing the cost of congestion to residents, business and the environment, and integrating with housing and other land use. In 2010, MPC will focus on piloting elements of a new federal surface transportation package, working with CMAP to implement criteria-based decision-making, and enabling public-private partnerships in Illinois. Transit Innovation: MPC promotes tools and best practices that are being tested and implemented in cities around the world, to business leaders, elected officials, and policymakers. MPC focuses on transit innovations that can reduce congestion, improve mobility, and provide economic and environmental benefits, including bus rapid transit, transit components of congestion pricing, and opportunities to improve local transit systems due to high speed rail investments. Demand Management: In 2010, MPC will continue to develop and promote innovative strategies for financing infrastructure, including water and transportation demand management tools, to maximize the efficiency of our existing system. Congestion pricing, public-private partnerships, and a vehicle miles tax are among the tools MPC will monitor and assess for application in the Chicago region. Water Supply: Since 2003, MPC and Openlands have researched, recommended, and advocated for greater regional coordination and consistent state leadership on water supply issues. In 2010, this project will advocate for expansion of regional water supply planning groups in Illinois, a rethinking of federal and state infrastructure investment policies, and more flexible tools for local conservation and efficiency upgrades. Placemaking Chicago: MPC works with local residents and public agencies to advance common goals of quality public spaces that benefit residents, neighborhoods, and the region. Housing Choice: MPC will continue to work with regional Public Housing Authorities to improve coordination and leverage Housing Choice Voucher resources via the Regional Housing Initiative, Suburban Cook County Multifamily Preservation Initiative, and a portability pilot. Public Housing in the Public Interest: In 2010, MPC will continue to convene mixed-income development teams in the Plan for Transformation communities and assist with their community building efforts -- both within their properties and in the surrounding neighborhoods. Reconnecting Neighborhoods: Reconnecting Neighborhoods, launched in 2007, is engaging residents and stakeholders of three CHA Plan for Transformation neighborhoods to implement specific recommendations for enhanced transit services and facilities, an improved pedestrian environment, and new commercial opportunities on the Near North, Mid South, and Near West sides of Chicago. MPC's 2010 goal is to promote the local plans, pursue new federal funding opportunities, and engage local leadership to take on specific recommendations. Community Needs: MPCs work addresses the regional communitys need for a range of housing options (and price-points), a range of transportation options (that are accessible, affordable and that strengthen the regions competitiveness), and sensible and sustainable land use planning that incorporates open space, an adequate water supply, and the economic and quality of life needs of the region and its residents.