Summary

Regional Activity Centers are the locations that will accommodate the majority of metropolitan Washington's future growth and play a central role in achieving the Region Forward Vision’s prosperity, sustainability, accessibility, and livability goals. They include existing urban centers, priority growth areas, traditional towns, and transit hubs.

The idea of concentrating growth in Activity Centers was considered a visionary goal when it was proposed in the Transportation Planning Board’s Vision in 1998. Today, after years of promotion and cooperation by area leaders, the concept of Activity Centers is widely embraced throughout the region, and they are used as selection criteria for a variety of grants administered by COG and the TPB. The current Activity Centers Map, developed by COG and local planning departments, was based on the COG Round 10.0 Cooperative Forecast and approved by the COG Board of Directors in 2025.