Chicago, Community Leaders Publicly Release Cumulative Impact Assessment Report

Community and City of Chicago leaders publicly released the findings and recommendations from a 15-month process to develop Chicago’s first Cumulative Impact Assessment (the “Assessment”), a citywide project to provide data on how environmental burdens and other stressors vary in impact across the city. This Assessment, co-led and co-designed with people and organizations who live with these issues every day, identifies neighborhoods that experience the greatest cumulative impacts. It also reinforces and supports the requirements of the City’s voluntary compliance agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced last May. Recognizing that environmental protection and public health require a whole-of-government approach, the Assessment also provides strategies and actionable policy recommendations to guide decision-making on issues such as land use/zoning, permitting, enforcement, transportation planning, and more.