The Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission – along with partners Columbus 2020 and ULI Columbus – have released the final draft of their Insight2050 report. The aim of the study is to paint a detailed picture of four different growth scenarios for the region, providing public and private decision makers with a huge amount of data on the impact of their decisions about growth and development.
Urban planner Peter Calthorpe of Calthorpe Associates – the consultant whose RapidFire platform was used to model the different scenarios – presented the findings last night at an event at the Athletic Club of Columbus.
The impact of the study could be far-reaching, as Columbus and its surrounding jurisdictions come to terms with the impact that an additional 500,000 people and 300,000 jobs will have on the region by 2050.
Columbus Underground reported on the preliminary findings from the study in August, speaking with MORPC executive director William Murdoch and Director of Planning and Environment Kerstin Carr about the initiative. The final draft provides updates to the projections included in the preliminary findings, but also looks at a broader array of categories, such as public health costs, energy use, and household costs.
In the public health category, for instance, the study finds that its “Maximum Infill” scenario – in which higher-density development occurs mostly on previously-developed land – would result in a savings of $315 million compared to the “Past Trends” scenario, which is based on recent development patterns (mostly because of reduced auto emissions).
MORPC and their partners will be publicizing the results of the study and reaching out to a broad spectrum of public and private-sector decision makers in order to maximize its impact. Murdock said in August that future phases of the project may zoom in and look at scenarios for specific corridors or even individual development sites.
The full Insight2050 Scenarios Results Report is available at www.morpc.org.
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