LISC’s Quality-of-Life Planning Bettering Neighborhoods throughout Chicago
Justin Breen
Published: January 8, 2018
Attracting new businesses to West 79th Street is a mission for Carlos Nelson, executive director of the
Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation (GAGDC), and his associate, Nicole Wheatly.
Renovation of a four-story building just west of Halsted Street is expected to begin later this year.
Gordon Walek
In its third decade, LISC’s Quality-of-Life Planning (QLP) is bringing equitable change to neighborhoods throughout Chicago.
In the late 1990s, LISC, with leadership support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, created the New Communities Program (NCP), a groundbreaking, bottom-up comprehensive community planning effort led by community residents and supported by LISC. These QLPs are visions for a community’s future created and owned by the community and have served as a guide for investments and actions.
Auburn Gresham on the move
In Auburn Gresham, the QLP identified a need for living wage employment opportunities and a location in the community for residents to access health services. That shared vision has led to the Healthy Lifestyle Building at 839 W. 79th St. which will begin construction in the late spring of 2018. When the building opens in early 2019, it will bring hundreds of jobs and educational opportunities for residents. Carlos Nelson, executive director of the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation (GAGDC), expects the complex to contribute to a regrowth of the South Side neighborhood, noting an emerging plan for a giant fitness/athletic complex across the street, which could include a swimming pool, track, indoor lacrosse and soccer fields, and a basketball court that would be home to Leo High School’s standout hoops team.
Major rehab of the Healthy Lifestyle Building at 839 W. 79th St. is expected to begin this spring. When the building opens in early 2019, it will bring hundreds of jobs and educational opportunities for Auburn Gresham residents.
“The Healthy Lifestyle Building will be a catalyst for additional development,” Nelson said. “It won’t be a one-hit wonder. Our plans are to repurpose vacant land that was left over after decades of disinvestment.”
Since QLPs focus on and connect the highest priorities identified by the community, the impact that results rarely just achieves one goal at a time. In Auburn Gresham, the Healthy Lifestyle Building project will create 40-50 construction jobs from primarily neighborhood residents, Nelson said, plus 200-plus additional jobs once the building is finished. That includes teachers in workforce development leadership programs where adults whose students attend local schools can take resume/computer workshops and other trade skills. The building also will provide free income tax services for thousands of residents, Nelson added.
“It’s not only going to light up the community but provide tangible jobs,” Nelson said.
Read full article of community based organizations across Chicago, building on the promise and hope of Quality of Life, based on the hope of delivering the community designed and implemented project plans.
Click here to read full LISC article!
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The Benefit Chicago financing through LISC is merely a catalyst to get much of the groundwork going. Nelson says more capital is needed to see the project through fruition.
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Keywords:
Auburn Grehsam, Build on 79th Street, Healthy Lifestyle, Quality of Life Plan, Real Estate
Posted in Auburn Gresham in the News, Business, Housing, Economic Development, Community Highlights