Seattle Transportation Programming & Smart Growth

Just like many other cities, within the United States of America, Seattle adopted a Comprehensive Plan in 1994 in order to move towards a more sustainable future. Throughout the years the plan has been updated in major and minor ways, and the original plan followed major involvement by the citizens of the city. Through the citizen’s involvement the city was able to establish four core values: community, economic opportunity, social equity and environmental stewardship.

            

The state of Washington requires all cities within the state to have a comprehensive plan through Washington’s Growth Management Act (GMA). This act was especially important for the city of Seattle, because it has experienced a large population growth since the late 1970’s. In other words, if the city did not have a comprehensive plan then there would be no direct plans for the population growth, and land & other resources within the city could be quickly consumed or damaged.

            

Furthermore, comprehensive plans contain many elements such as a transportation element. Within the Seattle Plan there is the Urban Village Element aspect which shapes the city’s transportation. Unfortunately, with the city being fully built and already having a mature street plan, the city has now started to use a full range of non-single-occupant vehicle transportation facilities in order to support the redevelopment pattern. These facilities will help create the mixed-use, walkable, transit and bike-friendly centers that the overall plan has envisioned. Lastly, the city will also  look into an appropriate transportation design in order to align them with the transportation facilities and services along with adjacent land use.