SEATTLE— Award-winning efforts to make Puget Sound an even better place to live will be celebrated by the region's elected officials at the Puget Sound Regional Council's General Assembly meeting March 21 at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle.
The VISION 2020 award winners are diverse examples of the many ways public and private organizations are working to improve the region's quality of life and achieve growth management and transportation goals.
The 2002 VISION 2020 Award winners are:
Evergreen Park Expansion (Bremerton) - Environmental clean-up and redevelopment of an industrial property north of downtown Bremerton into a new park with shoreline trails, lighted bike paths and amphitheater for performing arts.
I-405 Corridor Program - Extensive regional cooperation and public outreach to develop options for improving transportation in the I-405 corridor.
Juanita Village (Kirkland) - Redevelopment of an aging auto-oriented shopping center into a new neighborhood with housing, shopping, public plazas and transit stops.
Julie Apartments/Urban Rest Stop (Seattle) - Historic preservation project with 47 low-income housing units and a free hygiene center for low-income and homeless people.
King County Transit Oriented Development Program - Program supporting transit-oriented development projects around King County. Two projects are completed, and 26 others are in development.
Metropolitan Place (Renton) - Project in downtown Renton that features 90 mixed-income apartments over a King County Metro park-and-ride garage.
Port of Tacoma Road (Tacoma) - The first of 15 FAST Corridor freight mobility projects to be completed. Project includes two rail over-crossings and one highway under-crossing to eliminate conflicts between rail and vehicle traffic.
Roosevelt Way to Go (Seattle) - Program at Roosevelt High School that provided incentives to students and staff to bike, bus, carpool or walk to school instead of driving alone.
Snoqualmie Preservation Initiative - Agreement to preserve 145 acres of forestland adjacent to Snoqualmie Falls and protect from development up to 9,000 acres in the Raging River watershed.
Transportation Incentive Program (Kitsap County) - Highly successful program sponsored by Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Kitsap Transit to encourage shipyard employees to commute by transit.
Upper Tacoma Design Guidelines (Tacoma) - Guidelines designed to retain and promote the historic character of the Upper Tacoma (Hilltop) neighborhood while supporting redevelopment.
The Village at Overlake Station (Redmond) - Redevelopment of an existing surface King County Metro park-and-ride lot into 308 units of affordable housing, a transit center, park-and-ride garage, and daycare.
The award winners were selected by an 11-member committee composed of nine elected officials from King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties and two regional experts.
The VISION 2020 Awards will be presented at the Regional Council's General Assembly dinner on March 21, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center. The General Assembly meeting includes mayors, county executives, commissioners and councilmembers representing the Regional Council's more than 80 member governments and agencies. The full agenda for the meeting is available on the Regional Council's Web site (psrc.org) or by calling the Information Center at (206) 464-7532.
The Puget Sound Regional Council is the designated regional transportation and growth management agency for the central Puget Sound region under state and federal laws. The Council is composed of county, city, port, transit, tribal and state agencies serving the region, and develops policies and coordinates decisions about regional growth and transportation planning in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties.