Updating the Regional Growth Strategy

VISION 2040 is the region’s current plan for managing growth forecasted through the year 2040. The plan includes overarching goals, an environmental framework, a strategy to sustainably guide growth in the region, and multicounty planning policies as required by the state Growth Management Act (GMA). The plan also includes implementation actions at the regional, county, and local levels. VISION 2040 was adopted in 2008, and the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) is now in the process of updating the plan.

The updated plan will be known as VISION 2050. The update will consider the best approach to managing growth with a projected 1.8 million additional people and 1.2 million new jobs by 2050. The update process will continue through the coming year, with adoption planned for May, 2020.

The process of developing VISION 2050 includes considering three distinct regional growth alternatives:

• Stay the Course

• Transit Focused Growth

• Reset Urban Growth

Each of these three alternatives distributes growth in unique patterns that have different trade-offs. PSRC recently released the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for review. This is the environmental review of the draft VISION 2050 plan, and it analyzes the environmental effects of the three alternatives. The Draft SEIS shows a range of land use, transportation, environmental, and other impacts that would likely occur with each of these alternatives and identifies opportunities to mitigate them.

The City of Mercer Island is seeking feedback from the community on the SEIS to inform the City's formal comments on the draft. Please use the comment form to submit your comments. Comments can also be submitted directly to PSRC: https://www.psrc.org/vision-2050-draft-seis-comment-form. Comments are due April 29, 2019.