The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) is the regional planning agency for the central Puget Sound region with specific responsibilities under federal and state law for transportation planning, economic development and growth management. PSRC helps local governments and transportation agencies to plan for the future of our region by addressing issues that go beyond the boundaries of any individual city or county.
PSRC is unique from other metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) because of the additional responsibilities under the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA) which requires coordination and consistency between local plans and the regional multicounty planning policies (MPP) and therefore one of the core functions of PSRC is to certify local comprehensive plans. Washington State also designates PSRC as the Regional Transportation Planning Organization (RTPO) under state law. In addition, PSRC is the federally designated Economic Development District (EDD) for the central Puget Sound region.
DECISION MAKERS
Regional Staff and Advisory Committees
At the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC), central Puget Sound counties (King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap), cities and towns, ports, tribes, transit agencies, and the state work together to develop policies and make decisions about regional issues. The following diagram outlines the structure of how these decisions are made.
REGIONAL POLICY GUIDANCE
The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) adopted VISION 2040 in 2008, which is the region’s policy-level land use, economic development, and transportation strategy for the region to accommodate an increase of 1.3 million people and 1.1 million jobs by 2040.
Health and equity are featured prominently in the multicounty planning policies that are part of the VISION 2040 document. VISION 2040’s triple bottom line (people, prosperity, and planet) is viewed by the public health partners as recognizing the link between a healthy environment, healthy economy, and healthy people. In addition to continuing PSRC’s interest in safety, VISION 2040 calls out other health-related topics, including the built environment and health, air and water pollution from vehicles, and chronic diseases related to exposure to pollutants, physical inactivity and lack of access to healthy foods. In addition, the plan calls for ensuring mobility choices and minimizing negative impacts for disadvantaged populations and people with special needs.
Transportation 2040, first adopted in 2010 and updated in 2014, is the region’s
long range, multimodal transportation plan and an implementation component of VISION 2040. Transportation 2040 focuses on providing mobility while improving the region’s environmental health and economy.
The Prosperity Partnership is a coalition of more than 300 government, business, labor and community organizations dedicated to improving long- term economic prosperity for the central Puget Sound region. Created by the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) in 2004, the Prosperity Partnership created the region’s first unified economic strategy. The Regional Economic Strategy lays out a comprehensive game plan to grow jobs and economic activity throughout the central Puget Sound region by strengthening the fundamentals shared by all industry sectors.
The remainder of this report includes information about agency activities in each department related to health and equity.
Transportation 2040