Central Avenue in Austin is on its way to becoming an improved main corridor on Chicago’s West Side.
Austin Coming Together and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning released their plan on Wednesday for how to redevelop Central Avenue and its intersections to cultivate an environment that best serves surrounding residents.
“This is just the beginning,” said ACT Executive Director Darnell Shields in a statement. “There is more and more happening in the Austin community, and the ACT Network is at the forefront of it.”
The Central Avenue Action plan outlines recommendations and how to implement and pay for them over the next several years. The plan will cost millions of dollars with funding support from CMAP, alderperson funds, Tax Increment Finance funds, the City of Chicago, state and federal departments, plus philanthropy efforts.
It includes three goals:
- Creating an attractive, safe public realm for residents and visitors that helps unlock the neighborhood’s development potential.
- Encouraging development that enhances quality of life and increases opportunities for residents.
- Building community support and partnerships, identifying funding sources, and securing other resources to advance community priorities.
To create a safe, attractive public realm, the plan envisions making Central Avenue “the spine of Austin” by creating more assets and open space around Lake and Central and around Madison and Central. This means sidewalk repairs, improved street lighting, and even a plan to let local youth design a building for the vacant lot on Central Avenue and Ohio Street.
There will also be an effort to amplify historic sites through tours, exhibitions, and public art – especially finishing incomplete murals at Lake and Central.
The plan also envisions enhancing transit and pedestrian safety through measures taken to slow traffic on Central Avenue with raised crosswalks or pavers. The plan suggests adding a left turn signal at Lake and Madison.
It also aims to make Central Avenue and Lake Street a community hub by improving the area under the train tracks and organizing regular programming at Austin Town Hall. It proposes redesigning a stretch of Corcoran and Lake to have curbless streets for pop-up events.
Recommendations for development include:
- Creating a vibrant intersection at Central and Lake by filling vacant storefronts, working with existing businesses to address safety issues, and adding a nonprofit or political official’s office to Central Avenue.
- Replacing the site where the Corcoran Food Mart once stood with another food option.
- Adding more workforce training opportunities on and around Central Avenue, possibly housed in the nearby Austin College and Career Academy High School.
- Partnering with area arts organizations to establish creative training programs and putting a city service center on Central to assist locals with resources.
Action items to encourage such development include reaching out to those who own multi-family apartments to encourage building repairs, plus exploring whether these structures could be bought and converted to affordable housing. ACT is also considering which first-floor Central Avenue units could be converted to retail or mixed-use.
To do this, ACT will need to craft a planning and investment strategy, build partnerships, and explore funding sources.
Transforming the Central Avenue corridor comes as part of ACT’s Austin Forward. Together quality of life plan. Among Central Avenue efforts, the quality of life plan has led to turning Chicago Avenue into the Soul City Corridor and the creation of the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation.