The evolution process of Chicago’s industrial land-use policy

Abstract

Despite the industrial restructuring process that occurred between 1970s and 1980s in the Western World, the city of Chicago adopted an innovative land-use industrial policy for curbing the structural decline of manufacturing. The main aim was to preserve living wages manufacturing jobs for the Chicago residents that could not access the service sectors. Chicago’s industrial land-use policy experience, both in its historical and future perspectives, is an interesting top-down municipal policy that shows how the relationship between land-use planning and manufacturing shapes the city not only in spatial terms but also in social and economical terms.