These will be used in planning for future transportation, water supply, and other needed facilities and services. In March 1994, the Commission concluded that the region would grow by 1.7 million people, or 25 percent, and by 1.5 million jobs, or 37 percent, from 1990 to 2020. These forecasts were subsequently broken down to the county and municipal levels and were endorsed by the Commission. They formed the demographic basis for the Regional Transportation Plan adopted in November 1997. They are also being used by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in determining the future allocation of Lake Michigan water.
Planning is about the future.
The forecasting function, which NIPC performs for the region, is central to any consideration of the region's future. The governments and citizens of northeastern Illinois are engaged in an extensive discussion on how we can continue to grow while assuring a high quality of life to all our citizens. This discussion must be grounded in realistic assumptions about how the region is likely to grow and what our probable range of choice about that growth is. Our future opportunities and challenges will differ greatly if we assume that our population will grow slowly, as it did between 1970 and 1990, or more rapidly, as it has since 1990. They will also vary in response to decisions on such matters as preservation of open space and the location of aviation capacity, since these will shape where people choose to live and work.