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Land Use Commission

OKI has been asking “Where Do We Grow From Here?” because as we grow, the transportation system must grow with us. We must build new streets and roads, parks, water and sewer systems to accommodate new residents and businesses at the same time that we try to maintain and operate what we already have – and as more and more demands are placed on taxpayer dollars.

OKI conducts long range transportation planning at the regional level. Land use decisions happen locally, and they vary considerably among cities and counties. Better coordination between local land use planning and regional transportation planning could help to stretch scarce taxpayer dollars.

While OKI has no authority - and seeks no authority - over local land uses, OKI’s Board of Trustees created a land use commission to study the complex connection between transportation and how we use land for homes, businesses, parks, and factories. The primary goal of the OKI Land Use Commission is to bring about more consistency between local land use planning and regional transportation planning, so that scarce taxpayer dollars can be used for maximum benefit.

Policies for the Future

The OKI Board has agreed that current trends need to be changed. The blueprint for change is a strategic policy plan. This policy plan would be implemented through voluntary cooperation among local governments, OKI, and other organizations.

The Land Use Commission drafted goals, objectives and policies to bring about more consistency between local land use planning and transportation planning. This effort looked at land use and transportation planning across county lines in a way that’s never been done. It’s a chance to determine what kind of region we want for ourselves and our children.

Public Involvement

OKI sought suggestions from the general public about the draft policies -- policies that are the core of the strategic regional plan for better land use and transportation.

From February 1 through March 20, an on-line survey was available through this website, and between March 1 and 16, a public meeting was held in each of OKI’s eight counties to get feedback. Each of the public meetings included discussion with the participants and the opportunity to complete an exit questionnaire about the meeting and a copy of the survey. The feedback from all these sources has been analyzed and summarized and was used by OKI’s Board to make decisions about the final form of the policies.

We thank the dozens of volunteers who helped to spread the word about the public meetings and the survey through hundreds of organizations and personal contacts, and all those who took advantage of these opportunities to give us feedback.

Strategic Regional Policy Plan Adoption

On April 14, 2005, the OKI Board of Trustees accepted the policies as revised to reflect public input and adopted the strategic regional plan. The next step is for staff to draft action steps for implementing the plan, to clarify what steps need to be taken in what order, in what timeframe, with what resources and with whose involvement, and to present these action steps when available to the OKI Board for approval.

* Microsoft Word is needed to view the files below.

• OKI's Strategic Regional Policies (adopted on April 14, 2005)
• Summary of public participation
• Summary of exit questionnaire responses
• Results of the survey
• Summary of recurring concerns and questions from the public meetings, the exit questionnaires, and the survey about the draft policies