Liquid assets

This chapter provides a case study of Lincoln Yards, an evolving redevelopment project proposed for a site flanking the Chicago River on Chicago’s north side. The project reveals how values in riverfront development can conflict and how, early in the planning process, financial and zoning instruments can “lock in” types of development that favor some kinds of land values and not others. Through a review of the literature, we develop a typology of historical “waves” of riverfront development plans, their financing structures, and their conceptualizations of value. We then document and interpret the planning and construction process for Lincoln Yards from 2017 through 2023 to show how city governments have difficulties balancing their roles as co-speculators in land value capture schemes with the need to attend to the critical ecological roles of river corridors. We argue that a mismatch exists between traditional infrastructure finance tools like tax increment financing and ecological restoration goals, as they rest on competing logics of future value. There is an urgent need for new climate adaptation tools such as special ordinances, overlay zoning, and setback tools that recognize the long-term, non-utilitarian, and non-anthropocentric nature of ecological values.