Our involvement with smart growth as an MPO really came most recently out of a visioning process we went through in the mid-1990s to try to reestablish the policy component of our transportation plan, which was long outdated—it was developed in the 1970s. One of our overriding concerns was that every major transportation project that came through our process was questioned in terms of how it fit into the big picture. Whether it was a highway project or a major transit project, we were asked, "What is its impact on sprawl and land use?" We were not very well positioned to answer that question. In developing this vision from the transportation perspective, we argued that for transportation planning we needed a composite general land use and transportation map of the region that identifies the key elements needed for regional transportation planning: regional activity centers, principal transportation corridors and facilities, and designated green space. The MPO adopted that in 1998, and then we began working with other committees at the council of governments that deal with the land use side of the equation to develop that map. From a transportation point of view, we put forward our long-range plan, which we had adopted through 2025. It was a fiscally constrained plan to meet federal requirements. That was all we could afford. We had a number of study corridors on that map.
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