What Does New Visions Say About Alternative Futures?
The Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDRPC) conducted an in depth analysis of the demographic distributions and land use patterns for four scenarios to test the impacts of growth:
Status Quo Trend- CDRPC’s baseline forecast (9% growth in population, 15% growth in households by 2030, current development patterns continuing); this is the official Plan forecast;
Concentrated Growth- the baseline growth rate with more concentrated development patterns resulting from urban reinvestment and suburban planning;
Trend Hyper-Growth- hyper-growth (29% population growth and 35% household growth by 2030), with in trend patterns of dispersed development;
Concentrated Hyper-Growth- hyper-growth occurring in a concentrated pattern resulting from more urban reinvestment and suburban planning.
Under any growth scenario, it was found that the benefits of concentrated development patterns are significant for the transportation system and for regional quality of life. The New Visions Plan supports and encourages concentrated development in the Capital District. The urgency for coordinated, high quality planning is even greater under a scenario of high growth. This urgency will be necessary because the impacts of a high growth scenario with dispersed development patterns would threaten to make the region’s quality of life unsustainable.
The Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDRPC) conducted an in depth analysis of the demographic distributions and land use patterns for four scenarios to test the impacts of growth:
