Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Roundtable 4November 9, 2007

Tom Christoffel, AICP “I see regions.”

Roundtables Review – Regional Analysis 3.0

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?

The Mid-Atlantic has been our Market area for 20 Years

This is the Wash COG – MSA View of the World

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

This is where we started

Presentations

o Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments

o Baltimore Metropolitan Councilo Northern Virginia Regional Commissiono Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission -

Warrenton – Culpepero Northern Shenandoah Valley – Front Royal –

Winchester o Eastern Panhandle – Region 9 - Martinsburg –

Charles Town o Region 8 – Romney, WV

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

Roundtable II – February 17, 2006 Washington, D.C.

Presentations

• Tri-county Southern Maryland –• George Washington – then RADCO –

Fredericksburg – • WILMAPCO - Wilmington Area Planning Council • Kent/Dover MPO • Tri-county Western Maryland • State perspectives on Transportation

- Virginia DOT- Maryland DOT

County to County Work-flows: 2000 CTPP

Sussex

Future? Region to Region work flow like WILMAPCO

Roundtable III – BaltimoreParticipation area grows –

NARC, NADO & AMPO Co-sponsor

Roundtable III – December 8, 2006 Baltimore, MDPresentations

• Mid-Atlantic Regional Analysis• Air Quality – Air Pollution Transport - Maryland

Department of the Environment and Air Quality Planning Branch, EPA - Region III

• Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission PA-NJ

• Lancaster County, PA – Growth Management Plan • Thomas Jefferson – Charlottesville Freight

Movement Study - Commonwealth's Multimodal Transportation Planning Office

• Integrated Corridor Analysis Tool (ICAT) - I-95 Corridor Coalition

Next Sponsor? – APA Regional & Intergovernmental Planning Division

Base map: Sub-State Regions

Regional 3.0?

• 1998 National Regional summit – NARC• Opinion of experts – regionalism had failed in

the U.S. • I knew our region worked.• No interest in a single layer of Regions as

Virginia had• Search for perfect set of regional boundaries.• 2007 – “We really don’t know how to do regional

planning.” Ron Thomas, Calgary, Canada

Regional Communities• The emergence of Regional Community –

the sense of being a “community of communities” had become operational in PD-7. The PDC was another layer of community.

• Northern Shenandoah Valley gave a recognizable name that contributed to the alignment built into Virginia.

• Looking to geography, there were many criteria for regions – watershed, bioregion, culture, economy, etc. – most acted like political boundaries were mistakes.

State as Region County – substate Region

• In 1967, W.G. East wrote: “There is only one region-the surface of the earth-on which mankind finds its home.”

• Gwilliam Law – Administrative Subdivisions of Countries – U.S. only States listed, not counties. Why? Counties too unstable. States are semi-autonomous regions.

• This led to a scale approach.

Local-Regional Scale – A Proposal

If this is “Local Community”

Then this is “Regional Community.” Level

unincorporated area, township & municipal corporations→e.g. Gore, Middletown, Winchester City

County - e.g. – Frederick 1.0

County → Defined multi-county/independent city regional organization(s); e.g. – Planning District 7 – served by Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission; Winchester Airport Authority

2.0

Multi-county region→ Region to region cooperation – e.g. I-81 Corridor; Shenandoah Valley water and air; Mid-Atlantic Roundtable; crossing State lines or inclusive of an entire State - e.g. – Virginia Association of PDCs

3.0

State→ Multi-State – e.g. - Quad State Legislators MD-PA-VA-WV; ICPRB; Chesapeake Bay

4.0

Multi-State→ Nation - e.g. – United States 5.0

Nation→ Multi-national continental/oceanic – e.g. The Americas, North, Central and South - e.g. – NAFTA – Canada, Mexico, U.S.

6.0

Multi-national → World/planet/globe – e.g. – United Nations, WTO, ... 7.0

Global→ Solar system – galaxy – universe – e.g. – a Galactic Federation ?

8.0

Thought: “Local is whole. All politics are local. When a regional geography is whole, it becomes local, the local region”

1.0 Scale - County

If this is “Local Community”

Then this is “Regional Community.”

unincorporated area, township & municipal corporations→e.g. Gore, Middletown, Winchester City

County - e.g. – Frederick

2.0 Scale – Multi-County Region

If this is “Local Community”

Then this is “Regional Community.”

County → Defined multi-county/independent city regional organization(s); e.g. – Planning District 7 – served by Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission; Winchester Airport Authority

3.0 Scale – Region to Region

If this is “Local Community”

Then this is “Regional Community.”

Multi-county

region→COG, PDC, RC, etc.

Region to region cooperation – e.g. I-81 Corridor; Shenandoah Valley water and air; Mid-Atlantic Roundtable; crossing State lines or inclusive of an entire State - e.g. – Virginia Association of PDCs

4.0 Scale – Multi-State

If this is “Local Community”

Then this is “Regional Community.”

State→ Multi-State – e.g. - Quad State Legislators

MD-PA-VA-WV; ICPRB; Chesapeake Bay

Roundtable 4 – FredericksburgNovember 9, 2007

• Mid-Atlantic – New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia

• What about the Bos-Wash Mega-Region?– Old news - Jean Gottmann's book Megalopolis: The

Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States in 1961. 1971 - Bos-Rich? Bos-Fork?

– Mid-Atlantic Super-Region? Colonial U.S. Network.• American Planning Association organized with Division

and State Chapters to do Multi-State Regional Planning Roundtables in the U.S.

• Mid-Atlantic Regional planning analysis

1st product – second generation.

2nd Product % change - a different picture.

3rd – 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 pulled out – with time series we could see better the sprawls as build out occurs.

Contact

Tom Christoffel, AICPE-mail: tom.christoffel@gmail.comPhone: 540-636-8800 x 209