Wasatch Choices 2040 is a partnership among Envision Utah and the two major Metropolitan Planning Organizations along Utah's Wasatch Front. The purpose of the partnership is to involve the public through a scenarios planning process and consider the role of land use in developing the region's Long-Range Transportation Plan. Through 13 public workshops and five open houses held in 2005, members of the public expressed their preferences for transportation and land use in their communities. The input from the public informed development of regional growth principles that have since been adopted by elected officials and will guide transportation and land use decisions in Wasatch Front communities. Envision Utah also used information from the public process to create regional transportation and land use scenarios that ultimately led to creation of a regional vision. The Vision Scenario is a map depicting one version of how the Wasatch Front could develop if guided by the regional growth principles. Modeling of the regional vision demonstrates that it performs significantly better than the existing long-range plan with respect to several quality-of-life measures, including congestion. The primary lesson from the process is that modest changes in land use can meaningfully improve the efficiency of our transportation system, and that land use planning should be integrated with transportation planning. Wasatch Choices 2040 has helped demonstrate this lesson to elected officials and the public. The planners at the MPOs are now drawing on the analysis conducted during the Wasatch Choices 2040 process as they prepare the next version of the Long-Range Transportation Plan.
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