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Last modified Wednesday, June 25, 2008 13:17
During 2005, ARC met with all 20 counties included in ARC’s planning area. The purpose of the meetings was to review adopted future land use maps with elected officials, planners, transportation engineers, water and sewer staff and school planners and discuss current growth patterns and local aspirations for directing future growth.
ARC staff conducted two large charrettes with planning professionals and citizens. ARC conducted both statistical surveys on Envision6 topics as well as a web based survey which was completed by over 1,000 individuals. Finally, ARC staff completed a charrette with a group of real estate developers and market analysts to discuss future growth areas of the region and the likely development pattern and density associated with growth locations.
The goal of the meetings was to produce a regional map that reflects a balanced vision of future growth, land use and public investments. The result of the meetings was compiled into a Local Aspirations Land Use Map. In addition to the Local Aspirations Map, ARC outlined other regional growth scenarios. To evaluate the alternative scenarios and associated forecast data, ARC staff used the travel demand computer model to conduct Land Use Sensitivity Testing and also conducted Land Use Scenario testing through Geographic Information System (GIS) based software known as “INDEX”. The land use scenarios reviewed include: adopted 2030 RTP Forecast Scenario – Mobility 2030; Compilation of Local Future Land Use Maps Scenario; Local Aspirations Scenario – Summarized from Local Meetings. Both the Land Use Sensitivity Tests and the Land Use Scenarios were run multiple times against the Mobility 2030 Travel Demand Model to analyze how changes in densities, jobs/housing balance, and access to transit impact Mobility 2030’s performance.
The Envison6 process provided insights towards additional opportunities for refinement of regional and local planning. The results of both the Sensitivity Tests and analysis of Scenarios indicate that the best results are achieved when jobs and people are close together. However, the analysis also proves that the concentration of growth leads to localized congestion due to the lack of local infrastructure and cross regional alternatives to handle the increased demand on the local system. Land use changes offer improvements to the transportation system, but the infrastructure must match.
