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Vision
Compass Blueprint is a new way to look at how we grow. The Compass Blueprint Growth Vision is a response, supported by a regional consensus, to the land use and transportation challenges facing Southern California now and in the coming years.
The Growth Vision is driven by four key principles:
Mobility - Getting where we want to go
Livability - Creating positive communities
Prosperity - Long-term health for the region
Sustainability - Preserving natural surroundings
To realize these principles on the ground, the Growth Vision encourages:
Focusing growth in existing and emerging centers and along major transportation corridors
Creating significant areas of mixed-use development and walkable communities
Targeting growth around existing and planned transit stations
Preserving existing open space and stable residential areas
Generated by a comprehensive process initiated by SCAG in 2000, the Growth Vision includes input from extensive community participation, technical modeling analysis and expert peer review.
Download the 2004 Compass Blueprint Growth Vision Report
The Growth Vision Process
Envisioning a Solution
In 2000, SCAG began exploring ways to conduct integrated, proactive planning across the region in a way that would engage the public as well as the local governments that traditionally participate in regional planning efforts. The SCAG Regional Council appointed a sub-committee to study growth visioning processes around the country and recommend an appropriate regional planning methodology for Southern California.
With the assistance of Fregonese Associates, a visioning process was designed in 2002 that incorporated cutting-edge stakeholder participation techniques previously used almost exclusively for smaller-scale planning efforts with sophisticated technical modeling and analysis methods.
Community & Regional Workshops
The foundation of the Compass Blueprint Growth Vision was laid at a series of public planning workshops or "charrettes" where a broad group of over 1300 stakeholders, including ordinary citizens, worked to show us how the region might look in the future.
In total there were 20 subregional workshops and five region-wide events. People representing a cross-section of interests gathered around tables in groups of 8 to 10 with detailed maps of the region's current conditions. Following a presentation describing regional growth trends, participants sketched their vision for the region and the next 25 years. Base maps depicted developed areas; wetlands; public or committed lands; flood prone areas; steep slopes; and existing and proposed transportation networks. They also showed opportunities for infill, redevelopment, available buildable vacant land and mapped demographic factors. Each table included a neutral facilitator to familiarize participants with the materials and the process, answer questions, and assist in resolving conflicts.
The groups were challenged with distributing projected population and job growth across the study area using a variety of development types ranging from relatively dense walkable and transit-friendly downtown, village, and town types, to more traditional, less-dense residential and large-lot subdivisions, industrial/office parks, and suburban activity centers. Working with the parameters of forecast growth, a constrained map and a menu of detailed development forced participants to consider the trade-offs involved in planning for growth. At the same time they were creating our region-wide growth vision.
Alternative Scenarios and Modeling
After the workshops, we created a series of alternative growth scenarios for the region. To determine some of the objective land use, transportation and economic implications of each of these scenarios they were evaluated with quantitative modeling and policy analysis techniques. The scenarios were then supplemented with maps, descriptions, and statistics that put them in context with the values of Southern California. Through the Internet, newspapers, telephones and a final region-wide workshop, the public was asked to weigh in on not only the scenarios, but also the underlying policies and actions that will make them work. From this process, a consensus Compass Blueprint Growth Vision emerged and continues to evolve.
