Tacoma earns VISION 2040 Award for downtown development plan

The Puget Sound Regional Council has honored the City of Tacoma for its efforts to support growth management with a 2015 VISION 2040 Award.

According to City of Tacoma Planning and Development Services Director Peter Huffman, the award recognizes the City’s innovative Center Plan for the Downtown Tacoma Regional Growth Center. The Center Plan is the compilation of the Subarea Plans and Planned-Action Environmental Impact Statements for Hilltop, South Downtown, and North Downtown neighborhoods. These plans offer aspirational visions, action-oriented strategies, and fiscally responsible catalytic projects, and are recognized as models for other regional communities, according to City officials.

Puget Sound Regional Council officials are scheduled to present the 2015 VISION 2040 Award during the Tacoma City Council meeting at 5 p.m. on Tues., June 23, at Tacoma City Hall.

Similarly, in October, the Planning Association of Washington and the Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association selected the City of Tacoma to receive the top award for comprehensive planning among large cities and counties for its work to create the South Downtown Subarea Plan & Environmental Impact Statement (see “Tacoma earns award for South Downtown development plan,” Tacoma Daily Index, Oct. 21, 2014). Last year, the City earned a 2014 Governor’s Smart Communities Award for its South Downtown Subarea Plan and innovative long-range planning strategy (see “Gov. Inslee: Tacoma, Port earn smart growth awards,” Tacoma Daily Index, May 29, 2014)

Tacoma and Pierce County projects previously awarded VISION 2040 honors include:

Pierce County Agriculture Program (2014)
McCarver Special Housing Program (2013)
Pierce Transit Tomorrow (2012)
Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy (2011)
City of Tacoma Mobility Master Plan (2011)
Orting Valley Farms (2010)
City of Tacoma’s D Street Overpass (2008)
Pierce County’s Housing Affordability Task Force – Final Report & Recommendations (2008)
Pierce County Agriculture Strategic Plan (2007)
Salishan HOPE VI Redevelopment Project (2006)
Thea Foss Waterway Revitalization Project (2006)
Port of Tacoma Road Grade Separation (2002)
Upper Tacoma Design Guidelines (2002)
Destination Downtown Tacoma (2001)
Bridgeport Way Improvement Project (2000)
Union Station Renovation (2000)
Foothills Trail (1998)
Tacoma Dome Area Plan (1997)
Pierce South Community & 72nd St. Transit Center – honorable mention (1996)

VISION 2040 is the region’s growth management, economic, and transportation strategy, designed to meet the needs of the five-million people expected to be living in the region in 2040. It is an integrated, long-range vision for the future that lays out a strategy for maintaining a healthy region-promoting the well-being of people and communities, economic vitality, and a healthy environment, according to Puget Sound Regional Council officials.

The Puget Sound Regional Council aims to develop policies and coordinate decisions about regional growth and transportation planning in King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties. The organization is composed of over 80 county, city, port, transit, tribal, and state agencies serving the region. It coordinates the distribution of about $240 million in Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration funds each year. The Puget Sound Regional Council sets priorities and evaluates the most efficient ways to target those funds to support state and local transportation and growth management plans.

More information is available online at psrc.org.

To read the Tacoma Daily Index‘s complete and comprehensive coverage of the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Vision 2040 Awards, click on the following links: