The Executive Board designated Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood as a Regional Growth Center.

South Lake Union is the region's 26th regional growth center and the second center designated under the regional criteria adopted by the Executive Board in 2003. PSRC sees South Lake Union as neighborhood with a great plan for the future and a tremendous potential for growth and positive change that would be supported by this designation. The neighborhood plan developed by the city envisions the area as a lively, exciting urban neighborhood where people can live and work in close proximity. The City of Seattle made the request to designate the area as a regional growth center, and PSRC staff reviewed the request pursuant to the regional designation criteria. Regional Council staff, as well as the Growth Management Policy Board supported the designation, and the Executive Board acted to approve the designation.

For more information, contact Yorik Stevens-Wajda at 206-389-2158 or ystevens@psrc.org.

The Executive Board received a briefing on the Prosperity Partnership and its success with goals and action items related to higher education.

The Prosperity Partnership is delighted with the progress on higher education goals in this year's legislative session. The highlight of the 2007 session was passage of Senate Bill 5731, introduced by Senator Paull Shin. This bill codifies the Partnership's goal of 10,000 new degrees by 2020. It also charge's a committee with 1) developing a plan to add sufficient capacity in our higher education system for these students, and 2) developing a campaign to help students, parents, teachers and others understand the opportunities in high-demand fields, as well as the need to take math and science to be prepared for them. This bill was directly responsive to the Prosperity Partnership's proposal, and along with the final budget, which upheld Governor Gregoire's proposal to nearly fill existing capacity for students in high demand degree fields, the Partnership's higher education goals were largely accomplished this session. Work remains to be done next session in filling the remaining capacity, and implementing plans made during the coming interim, but the 2007 session was landmark one for higher education.

For more information, contact Bill McSherry at 206-587-5663 or bmcsherry@psrc.org.

In other business, the Executive Board: