NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING SEMINAR

Urban and Regional Planning UP 474, Fall 2005

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Instructor: Dr. Stacy A. Harwood

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The Neighborhood Planning Seminar is designed to introduce the concepts of neighborhood and community in the context of the historical evolution of neighborhood planning and the quest for community. Students will deepen their understanding of the policy issues facing today's community development specialists, community organizers, urban planners and policy makers through an exploration of the causes and consequences of neighborhood decline, successful neighborhood revitalization and the theoretical tensions in neighborhood planning.

Rush City Neighborhood: A Case Study of Displacement in Progress

The students in the Neighborhood Planning Seminar at the University of Illinois spent the fall semester of 2005 researching the proposal and attending community and public meetings in the Rush City neighborhood. And after several weeks of observation and exploratory research, students focused on five main topics. They include (1) the Rush City neighborhood context, history, and conditions, (2) environmental conditions and considerations, (3) analysis of the industrial development proposal, (4) analysis of the proposed housing development project, and (5) analysis of the option agreement. This report represents what the students discovered.

The purpose of this report is to provide background information about the proposed Rush City neighborhood relocation plan and Calvert Park development project to the Neighborhood Law Office, who is representing the Rush City Improvement Association in East St. Louis.

Report and Appendices (1, 2, 3 & 5 only)

Send all corrections and comments to sharwood@uiuc.edu or call 217-265-0874. As the situation in on-going and ever changing in Rush City, do not cite without permission.