For the second time this
summer, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) has received
acclaim for the Sacramento Region Blueprint Project, its forward-thinking
approach to regional transportation and land use planning.
The Environmental
Council of Sacramento (ECOS) in September will honor the Sacramento
Region Blueprint: Transportation/Land Use Study with a Special Award
during its Environmentalist of the Year award ceremony. Blueprint
was selected for recognition for its "advancement of the regional
dialogue and the education of citizens and elected officials on growth
management."
In July, the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal
Transit Administration, in collaboration with the American Planning
Association, presented the Blueprint Project with a coveted Transportation
Planning Excellence Award during a ceremony in Park City, Utah.
The
FTA/FHWA award selection process was competitive, with over 200 submissions
nationwide, according to officials. The judges selected Blueprint
for the honor because it focuses on reaching a wide range of stakeholders,
both at the neighborhood level and the regional level, including low-income
residents, business representatives, and government officials to help
develop a plan, demonstrating a way to use technology to make it easier
for residents to think about their community and the way they live
and work. The judges also noted that Blueprint integrates land use
planning and transportation planning, using stakeholder and public
participation to reach the final outcome.
ECOS offered similar praise
in announcing its award. "The Blueprint project advances the understanding
of the connection between land use and transportation policy and the
value of focusing growth resources within the existing urban footprint.
ECOS hopes this is just the beginning of a long-standing awareness
of and commitment to these principles," said ECOS Project Director
Amanda Schramm. She said Blueprint was selected for recognition because
it "increases the breadth and detail of regional geographic information
systems (GIS) database capabilities for land use and transportation
planning, especially where applied to infill development.
