Investing in Our Transportation Infrastructure

A Vision for the Future

Using Our Resources Wisely

Working With Our Neighbors

Information and Technology

Public Safety

Streamlining Decisions

Focus on the Future

The San Diego Region

The SANDAG Board of Directors

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A Vision for the Future

More than 18 months in the making, SANDAG Directors released the draft Regional Comprehensive Plan for the San Diego region for public review in December 2003. The plan will serve as the foundation for connecting land uses, transportation systems, infrastructure needs, and public investment strategies for the San Diego region.

The purpose of the Regional Comprehensive Plan (RCP) is to strengthen the relationships among local and regional plans and policies, and land use and transportation, enabling local governments as well as the region to proactively plan for change and growth.

The Regional Comprehensive Plan offers a long-term planning framework for the San Diego region. It defines a vision and lays a foundation to connect local and regional policy decisions that support our shared vision of the future. It balances population, housing, and employment growth with habitat preservation, agriculture, open space, and infrastructure needs. It moves us toward a more sustainable future – a future with more choices and opportunities for all residents of the region.

The RCP contains an incentive-based approach to encourage and channel growth into existing and future urban areas and smart growth communities. One key will be in determining how best to use regional funding dollars to make smart growth a reality.

Residents, city and county elected officials, and regional infrastructure providers worked together with SANDAG to prepare the draft RCP. One of its key components is the Integrated Regional Infrastructure Strategy (IRIS), an investment strategy that will help the region meet its collective infrastructure needs.

The strategy will be used to assess and monitor whether the region’s existing infrastructure and planned capital improvement expenditures are adequate to meet the region’s needs or can be reprogrammed to support channeling growth into urban communities and smart growth areas. The strategy looks at the need for changes to public policy or new revenue sources to support smart growth development.

Regional infrastructure being evaluated includes: transportation, including ports of entry; sewage facilities; energy systems; solid waste; stormwater systems; water supply and delivery systems; regional open space, habitats, parks, and recreation facilities (including beach sand replenishment); and K-12 education, community colleges, and universities.

The RCP emphasizes the critical links between and among transportation and land use planning and local and regional planning, and demonstrates how these connections can be strengthened. It calls for focusing transportation and other infrastructure investments in our urban areas where jobs, homes, schools, recreation, and shopping are closer together. At the same time, better transportation connections will help shorten commutes and will make transit, biking, and walking more convenient.

The RCP looks beyond our borders and takes into account the planning and growth underway in Imperial, Orange , and Riverside Counties and in Baja California , Mexico . It also looks at the social equity and environmental justice in our planning processes: do all communities have access to the region’s resources and do all residents have an equal opportunity to participate in the process?

Following two rounds of public input and review, SANDAG unanimously accepted the draft Plan, which is now undergoing a third round of public review. The final RCP and the final Environmental Impact Report were presented to SANDAG Directors in July 2004.

The overall intent of the Regional Comprehensive Plan is for jurisdictions to use it as a “rudder” to steer us to where we want to be, as opposed to where the current trends appear to be directing us.