Alderman Daley secured funding to hire a professional urban planning company to assist with the redevelopment process for the Children's Memorial site.  Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc. (the HOK Planning Group) was selected to work with us to develop a re-sue feasibility study for the Children's site.  HOK specializes in zoning and land use analysis, community redevelopment, urban design, landscape and site concept plans, historic building and restoration studies and environmental and ecological design.  The y also have strong community outreach skills, utilizing the most current avenues to reach the widest audience.

"I want to bring in a team that will look at this site objectively," said Alderman Daley.  "The planners that were hired to assist me are charged with creating a process that involves the community in an open, un-biased and inclusive manner."  Alderman Daley has created a blog to allow for input from residents and community members who are unable to attend the community meetings.  Visit the Children's Planning blog at any time to add your own comments and suggestions.

The first community meeting was held in November of 2008.  It was a listening session for HOK to get an understanding of the types of properties that the community would/would not like to see in the space. (11/13/2008, St. Vincent dePaul Center, 2145 N Halsted 7PM.)

The second community meeting is being held on January 8th and is a working meeting.  Following a brief review of the previous meeting, initial findings from the consulting teams will be discussed.  Keypad voting will provide the consultants with additional information for determining the general make-up of the attendees and allow for anonymous input.  Break-out sessions will follow on themed topics (neighborhood context, transportation, economics, etc.) and the meeting will conclude with a review of the findings from the individual teams and a look forward to the next steps.  (1/8/2009, St. Vincent dePaul Centerm 2145 N Halsted 6:30PM)

The third meeting is scheduled to take place on February 18, 2009 at the St. Vincent dePaul Center, 2145 N Halsted, time to be determined).