April 20, 2009Tom Christoffel, AICP, Editor

Regional Community Development News

A Mid-Atlantic Overview – The Roundtable Process

States, Major Cities & Connecting Highways

Traditional Mid-Atlantic Map

New View – States, County & Multi-County Regions

Roundtable I – October 21, 2005 - Middletown,

Virginia - Northern Shenandoah Valley

• Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission response to Wash COG 2030 projections– Impacts perceived of continued growth– Strong impact since 9/11– Region may not want to continue to supply labor and

be affordable housing solution– Other outlying regions interested in the conversation– Why were we concerned about the Mid-Atlantic?

Area – Roundtable IBegin looking at the Mid-Atlantic as Regions

This is where we started

Super-Region Label - Issue Areas • Multi-State Transportation Corridors - 9/340/I-81/270/I-95/• Hazard mitigation • Metro Evacuation• Homeland Security• Air Quality• Water - ground and surface (ICPRB)• Vision/Scenario/Alternatives (from a local region process related to

those in other regions)• Infrastructure • Broadband • Regional Policy • No new bypasses in metro region puts more pressure on existing

roads.• Freight & Multi-modal/multi-state freight/rail and ports • Labor chain - everyone imports labor from outside their region - no

surplus of labor even at the fringes

Roundtable II – Expanded AreaCo-sponsors – NARC, NADO, AMPO

Location – Washington, D.C.

Roundtable III – BaltimoreParticipation area grows –

NARC, NADO & AMPO Co-sponsor

County to County Work-flows: 2000 CTPP

Region to Region work flow like WILMAPCO

Roundtable 4 – Fredericksburg- November, 2007

• Regional and Intergovernmental Planning Division, American Planning Association and State Chapters work with Regional Councils for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Roundtable as a model for the U.S.

• Regional level recognized as a level or coordination needed for smart growth with the participation of Governor Parris Glendenning.

• Mid-Atlantic Regional planning analysis prepared with region coding I developed.

% change – provides a different picture .

2005 Population density by region.

Loss of countryside –viewshed? Region land area less Federal and State Lands – including Urban Areas

Overall density in 2005 drops when Urban areas pull ed out – with time series we could see better the sprawls as buil d out occurs.

Consider Regional Councils as a Unit of Analytical Geography

• This could be extended to the U.S. to enable comparative multi-county regional analysis over time on standard regional geography.

• It can adapt to many levels of multi-jurisdictional planning.

I-95 CorridorShameless Plug:

Please consider joining the

Regional and Intergovernmental Planning Division,

American Planning Association

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Roundtable is a means to coordinate regional planning at broader scales – the Mega Region and Interstate Corridor.

Local Planet Contact Information“Think Local Planet, Act Regionally.”

ContactTom Christoffel, AICP, Editor, Regional Community Development

NewsRegional Intelligence – Regional Communities, LLC

Box 1444 Front Royal, Virginia (VA), USA 22630

E-mail: Tom.Christoffel@gmail.comPhone: 1- 540-635-8582

Blog: http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/--