The Chicago area is a little closer to making unified land-use and transportation policies.

The Regional Planning Board announced its first director today.

All told, our region will absorb 2 million newcomers over the next two decades.

Planning for all the new houses, water lines and traffic will be a challenge.

Now there will be someone new taking on that job.

Randy Blankenhorn says good urban planning matters.

“We don’t always look at how water supply is going to be affected and water quality,” he says. “We don’t always look at what the new jobs and new housing are going to mean for congestion. How these impact not only the community that these new jobs and housing are in, but how it impacts our neighbors.”

Blankenhorn says planning for growth in the region faces major hurdles. There are seven counties and hundreds of municipalities here, and each makes its own zoning rules.

What’s more, the Regional Planning Board can’t compel any of them to adopt its recommendations.

Blankenhorn leaves a post as an urban planner at the Illinois Department of Transportation.