SB Friedman was engaged as part of a team led by The Lakota Group to develop a transportation, land use and open space strategy for the IL 53/120 Corridor in Lake County, Illinois.
The proposed roadway project included the northern extension of IL 53 from its current terminus at Lake-Cook Road to IL 120, in addition to improvements to IL 120. The IL 53/120 Corridor covers a roughly two-mile radius from the proposed roadway alignment, including portions of 18 municipalities and unincorporated areas. The project would provide north/south access through central Lake County, significantly improving accessibility throughout the county, and was expected to considerably impact development potential along the Corridor.
SB Friedman utilized a customized market analysis approach to account for the significant development potential generated by the new limited-access highway, including:
- Conducting interviews and engaging with key stakeholders;
- Preparing top-down demand forecasts of the maximum market potential for office, hotel, industrial and retail uses;
- Conducting fine-grained bottom-up analyses that simulate future market-driven development at the site level, based on site characteristics, community goals, and evaluations of site marketability and development capacity for various land uses; and
- Synthesizing and reconciling top-down maximum market demand and bottom-up site level potential.
SB Friedman worked with the overall team to prepare a balanced land use strategy that accommodated economic development potential, enhances mobility, and preserved community character, open space and environmentally-sensitive areas.
Results: The Land Use Strategy was approved by the Land Use Committee; however, the project was cancelled in 2019 as the follow-up Environmental Impact Statement study was underway.
For more information on the IL 53/120 project and to view a copy of the Land Use Strategy document, please visit the project website at: www.lakecorridorplan.org.