Municipal Planning and Technical Assistance

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County is partnering with Delta Institute to develop a plan promoting clean energy, resiliency, and sustainability. The project team focused on creating a comprehensive, equitable, partnership-driven, actionable, fundable, and measurable plan to advance the District’s position as a regional leader in environmental sustainability.

Delta Institute conducted a baseline greenhouse gas inventory as part of a broader suite of sustainability efforts for the Village of Skokie (IL; population 66k) in Fall 2021. An updated report was produced in the summer of 2022, integrating a different methodology for transportation emissions. This inventory includes emissions that are directly related to community actions and provides a starting point to develop initiatives that will reduce or eliminate emissions in the near, mid, and long term for the Village, its businesses, and residents.

Delta Institute worked with the City of South Bend, Indiana to develop a plan for the City to become carbon neutral by 2050. Our work encompassed Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventories, community canvassing and feedback, and achievable recommendations and road-mapping for all municipal departments, with an emphasis on reductions in transportation and energy.

Delta provided the City of South Bend and then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s Administration with an actionable municipal plan to reduce emissions, called Carbon Neutral 2050. The plan targets transportation and energy use in buildings, which were found to be the largest sources of GHGs in South Bend. Strategies were prioritized for their ability to provide the most substantial emissions cuts while maximizing benefits to residents and businesses.

Through a collaborative process between the Village of Sebewaing, Delta Institute, and Michigan State University, Delta provided recommendations, assessment, and analysis of environmental circumstances, climate planning, and municipal planning to align future development with better resilience outcomes to avoid flood risk and vulnerability to extreme weather caused by climate change.

In 2012 Delta Institute  and the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) collaborated as part of the Fisk and Crawford Reuse Task Force, formed to collect community input on future uses of two large brownfield sites in Chicago: the former Fisk coal plant in Pilsen and the former Crawford coal plant in Little Village. During this six-month process, both Delta and LVEJO recognized that Little Village was home to many other brownfields. Redevelopment of these sites, including the Crawford site, held significant potential to bring commercial or industrial businesses and local jobs to Little Village as well as to increase the amount of green or recreational space for residents. Delta and LVEJO initiated a two-year partnership in late 2013 to create the Little Village Vacant Property and Brownfield Redevelopment Strategy to guide the redevelopment of brownfield sites in Little Village. Our collaboration led to a comprehensive redevelopment plan for 10 brownfield sites that existed in the neighborhood. Our planning included site-specific redevelopment opportunity sheets (or “lookbook” sheets), accompanying preliminary environmental reviews, reuse strategies, and an appendix of all assessments. 

Delta Institute partnered with the City of Gary and Greenprint Partners to transform the once thriving site of the five-acre Bear Brand Hosiery Co. stocking factory into a park by planting hybrid poplar trees to improve soil quality. Plans for the vacant, degraded site include the installation of public art and landscaping. As of 2018, 300 hybrid polar trees had been planted on the site as an interim land use strategy. These hybrid poplars are expected to grow rapidly and both absorb and break-down the petroleum contamination within the soil to remediate the land for future reuse.

Delta Institute has worked with numerous communities who are faced with a closed–or closing–coal power plant. These sites have unique needs for redevelopment, ranging from environmental remediation to replacement of lost tax revenue and jobs. Delta facilitated a coalition of community groups located outside Pittsburgh, PA to create Guiding Principles for sustainable redevelopment of the closed Shenango Coke Plant property located on Neville Island, located on the Ohio River. Intended for use by future developers of the 50-acre site, these Guiding Principles were created by the Shenango Reimagined Advisory Council, composed of citizens, environmental groups, economic development agencies, and municipalities. These efforts were facilitated by Delta staff.

In 2012 Delta Institute and the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) collaborated with eight multi-sector stakeholder groups as part of the Fisk and Crawford Reuse Task Force. Appointed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the task force was formed to collect community input on future uses of two large brownfield sites in Chicago: the former Fisk coal plant in Pilsen and the former Crawford coal plant in Little Village. Delta, among many partners, facilitated and collaborated to draft recommendations for the redevelopment of the closed Fisk and Crawford coal plant site in the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago.

Delta Institute has partnered with McHenry County, IL, to create both a county-wide solid waste management strategy (2012) and provide a 10-year update in 2022. Specifically, Delta worked with for the McHenry County Department of Health to update  the McHenry County Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP). The work scope for Delta comprised three task areas, including Landfill capacity and expansion analysis, Legislative activity, and Solid waste management trends.

Delta Institute has worked within Gary for years—decades even—with dozens of local community partners who are essential to our collaborative efforts’ success. Many of our supporters are familiar with Delta’s efforts to create Steel City Salvage, our deconstruction project that saves reclaimed materials from vacant buildings going to landfill—instead selling them to spur economic development within the City of Gary. Specifically, Delta has worked to establish a sustainable marketplace for these salvaged items–which includes everything from old growth lumber to wall sconces to church pews.

Delta Institute’s Demystifying Waste report provides data to the private and public sector to decrease the disposal rate of reusable materials—and save these valuable supplies from landfills—and increase the capacity of local and state governments to adopt policies encouraging building material reuse and recycling with the recognition of local economic benefits. Delta Institute, in collaboration with the Building Material Reuse Association, has worked to identify end markets for reusable and recyclable building materials in the Upper Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin); provide an estimate of the volume of material that can be managed; and provide an estimate of economic opportunity afforded by the potential markets using economic indicators (e.g. jobs, wages).

The City of St. Louis, St. Louis Development Corporation, the Missouri Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority, and Region 7 EPA selected Delta Institute to revise its demolition handbook, develop specifications for deconstruction, train contractors around building material reuse, and plan a deconstruction pilot program. The City of St. Louis has leveraged Delta’s support to advance a multi-partner strategy to reduce waste from demolition, reuse building materials, and protect public health. As part of these efforts, Delta Institute’s St. Louis Deconstruction Market Assessment is made possible with support from the Environmental Improvement and Energy Resource Authority (EIERA) and in collaboration with the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) and the Green City Coalition.

Delta Institute is assisting the City of Hobart and the Hobart Sanitary District (HSD) to implement streambank stabilization and restoration, and to install a riparian buffer that improves permeability and infiltration along the Tributary corridor. Delta is providing project management and oversight, and has helped the City with procurement. The project will be completed in two phases of work along the riparian corridor. These improvements will increase stormwater capacity and infiltration, reduce nonpoint source pollution from entering the creek, prevent erosion and damage to surrounding infrastructure, and improve the instream and riparian habitat.

Delta Institute’s partnership with the City of Gary, Indiana, focused on the creation of a Gary Green Infrastructure Plan, a two-year project focused on assisting the City with planning and implementing Green Infrastructure designs, identifying 61 Priority Projects to install 26 acres of rain gardens, permeable pavements, street planters, and other GI designs, collectively reducing the negative impacts of 132 million gallons of stormwater annually. The GI Plan will play a significant role in how the city uses GI strategies to regulate land use, advance development projects, manage stormwater, control sewer overflow problems, and decrease pollution.

Delta and the City of Hobart have implemented GI installations throughout the city, including a courtyard rain garden at Hobart Middle School, a parking lot rain garden and permeable pavement in the front and backsides of Hobart City Hall, and a large bioswale in the city’s Hillman Park. The four installations collectively are projected to provide an additional 800,000 to 3.5 million gallons of stormwater management capacity that will improve water and soil quality within the Deep River and Turkey Creek Watershed which drains into Lake Michigan, while also serving as both beautification and environmental education tools for local residents.