Reimage The Southwest Side

Reimagining Ford City for the Next Generation

For decades, Ford City Mall has served as a gathering place for residents of Ashburn, Scottsdale, West Lawn, Chicago Lawn, and surrounding communities. Families shopped here, teenagers spent weekends here, workers found jobs here, and visitors to Midway Airport passed through the area.

A Community-Driven Future for Ford City

Ford City represents one of the greatest redevelopment opportunities on Chicago’s Southwest Side.

For decades, Ford City served as a commercial destination for the 18th Ward and surrounding communities. Its decline should not become an excuse to lower our expectations for what this land can become.

I am endorsing the Southside Flourish Movement’s Ford City Plaza Community Concept as a community-centered alternative for the future of the Ford City property.

At the same time, I support the Southside Flourish Movement’s push for a temporary moratorium on warehouse-related development approvals at Ford City.

These positions go together.

The moratorium is about giving Chicago and the community enough time to properly evaluate what we are being asked to give up, what different redevelopment strategies could provide, and what the long-term consequences will be before making an irreversible land-use decision.

The Ford City Plaza Community Concept demonstrates what an alternative future could look like.

Ford City Should Remain a Destination

The principle behind the Ford City Plaza Community Concept is simple:

Ford City should remain a destination.

It should be a place where people can work, shop, live, eat, gather, attend events, enjoy green space, use public transportation, and build community.

The future of approximately 66 acres of Southwest Side land should not be reduced to a choice between an abandoned mall and a warehouse development.

There are other possibilities.

Ford City Plaza presents one of them.

Rather than replacing the former mall with a predominantly single-use industrial campus, the Community Concept envisions a new mixed-use district combining commercial development, housing, entertainment, recreation, public space, transportation improvements, environmental infrastructure, and community amenities.

What Is the Ford City Plaza Community Concept?

The Ford City Plaza Community Concept is not an attempt to simply rebuild the old Ford City Mall.

Retail has changed. Consumer behavior has changed. The surrounding community has changed.

Ford City must change with it.

The concept instead imagines the property as a modern mixed-use Southwest Side destination that could incorporate:

  • Outdoor shopping and commercial districts.

  • Restaurants and entertainment.

  • Destination businesses.

  • Residential development.

  • Hotels and hospitality.

  • Event and gathering spaces.

  • Parks and public green space.

  • Recreational facilities.

  • Community agriculture and greenhouse space.

  • Pedestrian-oriented public areas.

  • Improved transit access.

  • Structured parking.

  • Stormwater and environmental infrastructure.

  • Stronger connections with surrounding institutions and neighborhoods.

The objective is economic diversity.

A visitor might come to Ford City for an event and stay for dinner.

A resident living nearby could walk to stores, restaurants or a park.

Families could use recreational facilities without having to purchase anything.

Businesses could benefit from residents, visitors, workers and travelers using the same district.

Instead of depending upon one land use to make the entire property successful, Ford City could have multiple economic anchors supporting one another.

Why We Are Calling for a Moratorium

The proposed industrial redevelopment would represent a fundamental change in Ford City’s future.

The application seeks to replace the property's B3-2 Community Shopping District designation with M2-2 Light Industry, followed by an Industrial Planned Development. SsFM's filing materials identify the affected property as approximately 2.9 million square feet of land.

A decision of this scale deserves comprehensive public scrutiny.

That is why the Southside Flourish Movement proposed a temporary 180-day moratorium on warehouse-related permits and administrative approvals affecting the Ford City property.

The purpose is not to freeze Ford City forever.

It is not a demand that the property remain abandoned.

It is not opposition to construction, jobs, or investment.

And it is not a demand for the City to immediately adopt the Ford City Plaza Community Concept exactly as drawn.

The purpose is to create a temporary planning period before Chicago commits one of the Southwest Side’s largest redevelopment sites to an industrial future.

During that period, SsFM has called for examination of traffic, diesel emissions, cumulative environmental burdens, noise, stormwater, infrastructure, employment quality and mixed-use redevelopment alternatives.

Pause. Study. Compare. Decide.

That is what the moratorium is about.

Pause

Temporarily prevent an irreversible warehouse development decision from moving ahead while major questions remain unresolved.

Study

Conduct serious analysis of:

  • Traffic and truck routing.

  • Air pollution and diesel emissions.

  • Noise.

  • Road and intersection capacity.

  • Pedestrian safety.

  • Stormwater.

  • Public infrastructure.

  • Employment.

  • Economic impacts.

  • Compatibility with surrounding communities.

Compare

Put industrial redevelopment beside other possible futures for Ford City.

That includes commercial, residential, hospitality, recreational, public-space and mixed-use concepts.

The Ford City Plaza Community Concept should be part of that conversation.

Decide

After the information is available, allow residents, public agencies, elected officials and other stakeholders to evaluate the options with a much more complete understanding of their consequences.

The moratorium is therefore not the end of the planning process.

It is a demand for a better planning process.

Community Input Should Happen Before the Decision

Public participation should mean more than giving residents a microphone shortly before government makes a decision.

Meaningful participation requires information.

It requires time.

It requires alternatives.

And it requires an opportunity for community input to actually influence the outcome.

SsFM formally requested that the Ford City application be deferred so residents could receive additional public meetings and transparent review of traffic, air quality, noise, pedestrian safety, infrastructure, and community-serving redevelopment alternatives.

The organization also specifically requested that the City's zoning process not advance the ordinance until community review was completed and a public hearing could be held on the resulting findings.

That is the standard Ford City deserves.

Protecting Ford City as an Economic Center

Ford City should not simply generate activity inside its property boundaries.

Its redevelopment should help strengthen the surrounding Southwest Side economy.

  • That means thinking about Cicero Avenue.

  • It means thinking about local restaurants and stores.

  • It means thinking about Midway Airport.

  • It means thinking about Richard J. Daley College.

  • It means thinking about CTA and Pace connections.

  • And, most importantly, it means thinking about the residents who will still be living here decades after the current development debate has ended.

A mixed-use Ford City could create opportunities across numerous sectors: retail, restaurants, entertainment, hospitality, property management, recreation, events, transportation, professional services, landscaping, construction, maintenance, and local entrepreneurship.

Economic development should not simply be measured by whether some jobs are created.

We should be asking:

  • How many permanent jobs are created?

  • What kinds of jobs are they?

  • How much tax activity does the development generate?

  • How many local businesses can participate?

  • How much surrounding private investment can it attract?

  • What public costs accompany the development?

  • And what opportunities are lost by dedicating the land to one particular use?

Housing Belongs in the Conversation

The Ford City Plaza Community Concept also demonstrates that housing can be considered as part of Ford City’s future.

Residential development could place people within walking distance of stores, restaurants, parks, entertainment and transportation.

Residents create consistent economic activity that does not disappear when an event ends or a business closes for the evening.

Housing could therefore help transform Ford City from a property people occasionally visit into an actual mixed-use district.

Any eventual residential proposal would require detailed study of affordability, density, infrastructure, market demand, accessibility and community needs.

The Community Concept establishes that these possibilities deserve to be studied rather than prematurely excluded.

Green Space Is Infrastructure

Green space should not be treated as leftover property between buildings.

The Ford City Plaza Community Concept places parks, recreation, community agriculture, landscaping and environmental infrastructure within the broader development vision.

These spaces can provide community benefits while performing practical functions.

Trees provide shade.

Landscaping improves pedestrian environments.

Green and permeable areas can contribute to stormwater management.

Recreational areas provide opportunities for families and young people.

Community agriculture can provide educational and neighborhood programming.

Public gathering spaces allow Ford City to function as a civic destination rather than simply private commercial property.

A redeveloped Ford City should improve the physical environment around it.

Transportation Should Connect Ford City - Not Overwhelm It

Ford City occupies an important location near major Southwest Side transportation corridors.

Any redevelopment should therefore consider how the site interacts with Cicero Avenue, Kostner Avenue, 76th Street, surrounding residential streets, public transportation, Midway Airport and nearby institutions.

The Ford City Plaza Community Concept emphasizes better connections rather than treating transportation solely as a mechanism for moving freight or automobiles through the property.

The goal should be a district accessible by multiple modes of transportation.

That means better bus access.

Better pedestrian infrastructure.

Safer crossings.

Better internal circulation.

Connections with surrounding institutions.

And a transportation system designed around residents, workers and visitors.

A Community Concept - Not a Finished Construction Plan

The Ford City Plaza Community Concept should be understood for what it is:

a community redevelopment framework.

It is not a claim that every illustrated building has a committed tenant.

It is not a claim that every component has already been financed.

It is not a final engineering drawing.

And it is not intended to bypass the professional planning process.

Quite the opposite.

The Community Concept demonstrates why a broader planning process is necessary.

Before construction, individual components would require feasibility analysis, engineering, market studies, environmental review, transportation analysis, financing, negotiations with potential developers and tenants, and additional community engagement.

The concept establishes a direction:

  • Mixed-use rather than single-use

  • Community-serving rather than isolated

  • Green and connected rather than freight-dominated

  • And designed around the long-term economic potential of the Southwest Side.

Why I Endorse the Ford City Plaza Community Concept

I support this concept because it represents the development philosophy I want to bring to the 18th Ward.

  • Development that creates employment without sacrificing quality of life.

  • Development that encourages private investment while demanding public benefits.

  • Development that gives local businesses opportunities to participate.

  • Development that expands parks and green infrastructure.

  • Development that connects housing, commerce, recreation and transportation.

  • Development that evaluates environmental consequences before construction.

And above all:

Development shaped with the community rather than simply presented to the community.

My Position on Ford City

  1. I support redeveloping Ford City.

  2. I support bringing substantial private investment to this property.

  3. I support construction employment and permanent jobs.

  4. I support new businesses.

  5. I support housing.

  6. I support better transportation.

  7. I support rebuilding deteriorated infrastructure.

  8. I support parks and community amenities.

  9. And I support transforming Ford City into an economic destination again.

What I do not support is treating the first major development proposal placed before us as the only possible future for this land.

That is why I support the Ford City Plaza Community Concept.

And that is why I support a temporary moratorium and comprehensive community planning process before Ford City is permanently committed to an industrial future.

Ford City Can Flourish Again

The choice is not:

Warehouses or abandonment.

There is another choice:

Planning.

  • We can pause.

  • We can study.

  • We can compare.

  • We can listen.

  • And then we can build.

Ford City once brought people from across the Southwest Side and surrounding suburbs together.

Its next chapter should be ambitious enough to do that again.

I Endorse the Ford City Plaza Community Concept.

And I support a temporary moratorium so our community has the opportunity to seriously consider it.

Ford City should not simply be redeveloped.

It should be rebuilt around the people who call the Southwest Side home.