GGLO and the non-profit advocacy organizations Futurewise and Transportation Choices Coalition have just released a new urban design and policy report entitled Transit-Oriented Communities: A Blueprint for Washington State.
The Blueprint is a vision and action plan for promoting transit-oriented communites (TOC)—neighborhoods that give people greater access to housing, jobs, shopping, and recreation without relying on a personal vehicle—a land use pattern leads to lower cost of living and higher quality of life for people, and long-term sustainability for the planet.
The Blueprint was launched at an October event that featured King County Executive-elect Dow Constantine, State Representative Sharon Nelson, former director of the Puget Sound Regional Council Mary McCumber, and GGLO's own Alan Grainger.
The report is the culmination of a year-long partnership between GGLO and Futurewise that included a series of seven workshops on TOC held at "GGLO Space at the Steps," GGLO's event venue off Harbor Steps at First and University in downtown Seattle. Additional info on the TOC workshop series is presented in this GGLO Insight article.
For more details on the purpose and content of the final report, Transit-Oriented Communities: A Blueprint for Washington State, please see this GGLO Insight article.
The complete Blueprint document is available for free by download in pdf format here. To purchase a printed copy of the Blueprint, please contact Futurewise.
Responses to Transit-Oriented Communities...
“Rarely is a call to action and a well documented proof of concept so concisely
brought together. This is both a powerful summary of the state of the art in
sustainable growth and a clear headed blueprint for Washington.”
—Peter Calthorpe, Principal, Calthorpe Associates
“This report makes the case for investing in transit that promotes the kind of development that will grow our economy while saving our planet. It’s a great resource for Washington State and for states and communities across the nation.”
—William Millar, President, American Public Transportation Association“Our region has a choice: either we can mitigate and adapt to global warming by protecting our rural and resource lands and creating strong cities, or we can lock ourselves into land use patterns that diminish our water and air quality and limit our economic competitiveness for generations to come. We can do better, and political leaders at every level of government need to work to this end. The TOC Blueprint moves us down that essential path.”
—The Honorable Dow Constantine, King County Executive