John Ladenburg, Pierce County Executive Sue Singer, Auburn Mayor Pro Tem Mike Lonergan, Tacoma Councilmember Deborah Knutson, Snohomish County EDC President and CEO Julia Patterson, King County Councilmember Bob Drewel, PSRC Executive Director

U.S. Senator Patty Murray Honored with VISION 2020 Award for Exemplary Sustained Leadership Six Superb Regional Achievements Also Recognized

The Puget Sound Regional Council honored U.S. Senator Patty Murray with a special President's VISION 2020 Award for exemplary sustained leadership. The award represents the region's highest honor in demonstrating outstanding leadership in enhancing the re-gion's quality of life and economic vitality.

"I've admired her advocacy for the region, and that she works with local elected officials," said Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, past President of PSRC. "She believes in grassroots and supports local projects. She is on the streets talking to real people making things happen."

"One of the things PSRC does is make sure that we are all part of the solution. It takes hard work, but we have to do that," said Senator Murray after accepting the award. "To me, PSRC is effective because you do set regional priorities, you do speak with one voice and you are working hard to solve those problems that are out there. You are unique because you take a comprehensive approach. There are a lot of groups that focus just on transportation, just on economic development. You bring these components together. I'm so proud to call you a partner."

"We need to show everyone that we all have a stake in the outcomes in the region," said Senator Murray. "As leaders, we need to make sure that those policies aren't a line item in the budget or some obscure statement. It has to be about the people in our community and how we are here to set the right priorities. PSRC does that. We need to connect people. I want to do my part to help all of you."

Senator Murray was honored along with six innovative regional projects that are helping to make the region's long range growth, economic development, and transportation strategy a reality.

Auburn Mayor Pro Tem Sue Singer to Lead the Puget Sound Regional Council; Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson Elected Vice-President

Puget Sound Regional Council's General Assembly voted unanimously to elect Auburn Mayor Pro Tem Sue Singer as its President and Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson as Vice-President.

"This is a key time for the region," said Mayor Pro Tem Singer. "And PSRC is the place where local government works together on the issues that matter most. We will be making decisions on the growth strategy this year that will affect the region for years to come, setting the stage for a major update to the region's long-range transportation plan, and moving forward with the Prosperity Partnership's excellent work to further higher education funding in Washington." Mayor Pro Tem Singer has served on the governing board of the PSRC for nine years as the delegate for suburban
cities in King County. She is an active member of the Suburban Cities Association and Chaired the PSRC Operations Committee for the past two years. Under Singer's Operations Committee leadership, PSRC and the Economic Development District have received clean audits with no findings.

In another unanimous vote, the General Assembly adopted the 2008-09 Budget and Work Program, which was formed under the leadership of Mayor Pro Tem Singer in her role as Chair of the PSRC Operations Committee. The Assembly also adopted an update to Destination 2030 to enhance the safety, security, envi-ronmental mitigation, special needs transportation, operations management and commute trip reduction elements of the plan.

The Puget Sound Regional Council received 23 outstanding nominations from all around the region. Here are the 2007 VISION 2020 Award winners:

The strategy allows greater height and density in three commercial core zones in downtown Seattle, if the developer provides certain amenities or uses transferred development rights. Amenities include open space, historic preservation, sustainable development practices, affordability, and child care.

Developed to preserve productive and commercially significant farmland in Pierce County through coordination efforts, a farmbudsman to be a central point of con-tact and advocacy, and through a specialized TDR program.

The program was developed to allow creative approaches to more urban development in Snohomish County Centers. Eleven projects have been accepted into this program, which offers alternative land use code requirements from the traditional county rules.

The City of Everett's plan has a number of innovations to help this regional growth center redevelop in a smart, sustainable way, including zoning bonus incentives for historic preservation, LEED certification, and the elimination of minimum parking requirements.

A green business development designed to support the clean technology cluster in Kitsap County. The development can support up to 2,000 employees and can potentially help the employment rate in a depressed area.

The redevelopment of a subsidized housing neighborhood has increased housing units, diversified the types of accommodation, and has created a mixed income neighborhood. The development uses new urbanist design, low impact development and green building products.

Ridership on the Washington State Ferries in the central Puget Sound region increased last year for the first time in seven years. The combined Puget Sound ferry ridership in 2006 was 21.3 million. This was over 150,000 higher than 2005, an increase of 0.7%. Region-wide ferry volumes peaked in 1999 at 24.0 million and had been decreasing gradually since due to various factors, among them fare increases and rising gas prices. Figure 1 shows ferry ridership by route for the last 10 years.

The slight increase in 2006 was generally spread across all of the cross-sound routes in the area, with Bremerton-Seattle, Bainbridge Island-Seattle and Ed-monds-Kingston all gaining more than 50,000 riders (see Figure 2).

The routes serving Vashon Island all had decreases in ridership, with the Vashon-Seattle passenger-only service declining by more than 45,000 riders due in part to its uncertain future.

The share of walk-on passengers continued to decline as it has since 1990. In 1990 30.6% of all ferry riders walked on. By 2006 this share had dropped to 26.4%.

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