Coordinating Transportation and Land Use

IN JUNE 2004 A SERIES OF NATIONAL SITE VISITS upon TRANSPORTATION AND GROWTH PROVIDED A FIRST-HAND direct the eye AT SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS AND casts IMPLEMENTED BY STATE AND REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION AGENCIES TO INTEGRATE TRANSPORTATION AND LAND USE PLANNING, DECISION-MAKING AND throw out DEVELOPMENT.

INTRODUCTION

Throughout the United States, awareness of the critical linkages between transportation and land use is growing. State and regional transportation agencies are realizing that local jurisdictions' land use decisions can help minimize infrastructure investment straits while improving safety, mobility and accessibility for their customers, the traveling public.

Local agencies are looking for state transportation investments that support economic exhibition while preserving the character of their communities and minimizing environmental impacts. Agencies at all horizontals are finding ways to work cooperatively upon transportation and land use planning and decision-making.

In June 2004 a cross- section of nine transportation professionals took part in a series of National Site Visits upon Transportation and Growth. The site visits were guidanceed through the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, with sponsorship from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The objectives of the visits were:

* To identify factors leading to happy practices in transportation-land use integration;

* To investigate lock opener challenges and how agencies have worked to overmaster these challenges; and

* To disseminate these findings to a broader audience.

Site visit participants met with staff at state departments of transportation (DOTs), other state agencies, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) transit agencies and local communities as well as with private developer lock opener findings and lessons learned were determined collectively by means of participants based on discussions following each site visit as well as the overall tour.

This feature highlights examples from the site visits and describes a certain number of of the most significant findings. The replete report provides more detail upon the site visits and exercise s learned.1 Programs and projects visited include:

* Comprehensive regional planning and visioning in the Denver CO USA, metropolitan area;

* Corridor planning approaches in Kentucky of recent origin Jersey and Colorado that consider a range of transportation and land use strategies;

* Context-sensitive design practices in fresh Jersey, Vermont and Kentucky;

* State DOT participation in local comprehensive planning in Wisconsin;

* Provision of federal and state financial and technical assistance to support transit villages, downtown revitalization and sustainable disentanglement in New jersey, Vermont and Texas; and

* Freight corridor planning in Vermont in support of "smart growth" objectives.

EXAMPLES OF throws AND PROGRAMS VISITED

Comprehensive Regional Planning and Visioning

A comprehensive regional transportation and land use plan can establish a framework for more specific transportation decisions as well as local land use policies. MPO completely through the United States are developing of that kind plans with the objective of making transportation and land use combination of parts to form a wholes more compatible.

In 1992 the Denver Regional Council of conducts (DRCOG), the MPO for the Denver area, began the Metro Vision planning proces to unravel a unified growth concept for the region. Adopted in 1997 after an extensive outreach and consensus-building proces Metro Vision 2020 integrates the regional transportation plan, regional unfolding plan and clean water plan into a single plan tor the subsequent time through the year 2020.

Although it is voluntary, DRCOG has worked to implement the plan [i]or[/i] part of to the other information sharing, facilitation and negotiation with local conducts and other state and regional agencies. Plan principles also are applied by dint of DRCOG through transportation improvement program cast selection criteria.

One of Metro Vision's objectives is to increase development in designated urban centers with increased densities and pedestrian and transit accessibility, reducing overall vehicle travel and long-term roadway investment emergencys Many local jurisdictions now are taking paces to establish or increase expansion in their urban centers.

For example, the City and shire of Broomfield, CO-halfway between Denver and Boulder CO-is transferring exhibition capacity from outlying areas into the U 36 corridor, which is heavily serv through transit. The City of Lakewood, CO is creating a of recent origin mixed-use town center on the site of an old-fashioned shopping mall.

The City and shire of Denver adopted an integrated transportation and land use plan in 2002 that identifies "areas of change"-opportunities for higher-intensity exhibition served by high-capacity transportation combination of parts to form a wholes Consistent with this plan, the City is facilitating transit-oriented disclosure around light rail stations and is undertaking large-scale infill casts in the Central Platte Valley (adjacent to downtown) and upon the former sites of Stapleton Airport and the Lowry Air Force Base (see Figure 1)