Community growth vision to shape next Regional Transportation Plan
On Friday morning, the Houston region’s Transportation Policy Council (TPC) quietly took another step towards one of CTC’s very first goals. It looks more and more like the next regional “plan” will include more of just that — planning. And it’s happening none too soon!
On a Tuesday night two years ago, more than 140 community leaders packed a public hearing held at the Greenway Plaza offices of the Houston-Galveston Area Council. They demanded to know whether the $77 billion of projects proposed in the 2025 Regional Transportation Plan could meet Houston’s mobility needs without worsening flooding, increasing air pollution, condemning countless homes and businesses, and consuming valuable open space.
Several leaders also asked which future(s) are we planning for? Will we really need 1,200 new lane-miles of highways when gas hits $5 or $8 or $10 per gallon and fewer people can afford to drive? Won’t we need a lot more transit options as Houston’s elderly population doubles in the next 30 years? Will the next 3.2 million Houstonians really want to live even further out from their jobs?
We were shocked and dismayed to learn that Houston’s regional “plan” for 2025 failed to deal with any of these questions. While other U.S. regions use “scenario planning” to ensure today’s projects will meet a variety of needs in an uncertain future, Houston’s plans simply assumed that current growth and development trends will continue unchanged, with the next 20 years the same as the last 20 years.
Until now.
On May 26, 2006, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels and other TPC members approved using the results of the recent Envision Houston Region community workshops to define one or more alternate “growth scenarios” for use in Houston’s next Regional Transportation Plan. The idea is that status quo development can ultimately hurt Houston’s quality of life, and we cannot afford to let that happen. We would be smart to consider alternative growth strategies — in addition to the trend — and what infrastructure we would need to help make them happen.
According to Alan Clark, H-GAC’s Director of Transportation Planning, more than 1,300 community members participated in the 9 Envision Houston workshops held across the region. He said that despite differences in geography, participants identified surprisingly common values and preferences with respect to future growth and development in our region:
- preserve open space, preserve flood plain, expand park system
- live and work closer together
- less traffic congestion, lower cost transportation, better mobility
- more transit
- healthier environment
Achieving any of these quality of life goals will require improving the linkage between transportation planning and land use planning. And to do that, we’ll need more policy guidance for land uses and transportation systems from our elected leaders in cities and counties across the region.
Read more about the Envision Houston process and discuss your ideas in CTC’s forums.