Extending Geographic Information Systems to Meet Neighborhood Planning Needs: The Case of Three Chicago Communities

While community-based organizations (CBOs) increasingly seek to utilize geographic information systems (GISs) for neighborhood planning and development, many have serious misconceptions about what GIS can and cannot do and what is needed to make effective use of it. This article describes the problems and opportunities in utilizing GIS as a tool for enhancing participatory planning in three neighborhoods in Chicago. It illustrates the process of creating a useful community GIS database and ways to augment GIS with other tools to foster public participation. Through 3 years of extensive experience in implementing a community GIS, a planning team at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that GIS has significant limitations that could be addressed by integrating other high-tech and traditional tools. Following Shiffer’s work, the team incorporated innovative multimedia and three-dimensional modeling and, inspired by Hopkins’ work, the team augmented GIS with electronic sketchboards. The Internet was also utilized to extend the reach of the community GIS. This combination of tools empowered residents to visualize, evaluate, and participate in revitalizing their neighborhoods. We hope that the experiences described in this paper will assist others who want to utilize GIS in community planning.