The COG Report

This is the COG Report. I’m Phil Mendelson, Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, with this Clear Channel Community News Note.

Every year, the COG Board holds a retreat in order to discuss regional issues in detail. Last weekend, we came together to talk about growth in metropolitan Washington, an issue which will be a priority of the COG Board over the next three years.

At the retreat, several speakers emphasized that today’s land-use decisions will greatly affect the region’s long-term outlook. William Hudnut, a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute, stressed the importance of strengthening established communities. John Norquist, CEO of Congress for the New Urbanism, urged leaders to design livable communities and to use old-fashioned Main Streets as a model.

The region continues to grow in economic strength and population according to COG’s recently published report, Economic Trends in Metropolitan Washington. Between 1999 and 2003, the number of jobs in the region increased from 2.4 million to 2.6 million. During that same period, the region grew from 4.4 million people to 4.8 million.

Long-range forecasts predict that the number of jobs in metropolitan Washington will increase by nearly 50 percent between the year 2000 and 2030. In that same time span, the region’s population is expected to grow by at least 35 percent. Where will all of these people live? How bad will traffic congestion get? Growth like this will require extensive planning.

At COG, we are doing everything we can to promote innovative land-use development. In April, the COG Board approved a video titled Smart Growth Begins at the Local Level to educate elected officials, civic groups, citizens and the development community about current land-use and transportation challenges.

Both the Smart Growth video and the Economic Trends report are available on the COG web site at www.mwcog.org.

Long-term growth is an issue that may not seem urgent, but we owe it to our children and grandchildren to act now in order to preserve the economic stability and quality of life of the metropolitan Washington region.

This has been the COG Report. With this Clear Channel Community News Note, I’m Phil Mendelson, Chair of the COG Board of Directors.