Puget Sound Regional Council

Updated:  September 4, 2019

The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) is a metropolitan planning organization that develops policies and makes decisions about transportation planning, economic development, and growth management throughout the four-county Seattle metropolitan area surrounding Puget Sound. It serves as the State’s Regional Planning Organization (RPO) for the greater four-county area: King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap. The PSRC develops short- and long-term projections of the area’s population and employment groth, conducts a variety of detailed analyses to support its projections, and prepares comprehensive planning documents to serve its member counties, cities, and other organizations. 

PSRC members include more than 80 entities, including King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties, as well as cities, towns, ports, state and local transportation agencies and tribal governments within the region. Its members serve on a variety of Boards which approve all PSRC decisions, policy pronouncements, and documents: Executive, Growth Management Policy, Transportation Policy, and Economic Development District Boards.

Major Planning Document Reviews

The GMVUAC interacts with the PSRC in a number of ways, including our Economic, Growth Management, and Transportation Committees.  Presented below are some of the various issues the GMVUAC monitors and advocates for our Rural Area constituency.  To read the GMVUAC’s comments submitted to the PSRC regarding any of the following programs, please visit our Letters webpage accessible from the Correspondence dropdown menu on our Homepage; or for more detailed information, please visit our Economic, Growth Management, and Transportation Committee webpages.

2019 VISION 2050

The GMVUAC led a team of King County Rural Area Unincorporated Area Councils and Associations in conducting an in-depth review of PSRC’s draft VISION 2050 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS). Detailed Public Comments (UACs/UAAs Joint Comment Letter on PSRC’s draft VISION 2050 SEIS) were prepared on the PSRC’s VISION 2050 (https://www.psrc.org/vision) that were submitted on April 29, 2019. Please see more information under our Home page’s “Current Issues” listings.

The GMVUAC is again leading a team of King County Rural Area Unincorporated Area Councils and Associations in conducting an in-depth review of PSRC’s VISION 2050 Draft Plan. Detailed Public Comments will be submitted to PSRC by its September 16, 2019 deadline.

2018 Regional Open Space Conservation Plan

The PSRC has prepared a Regional Open Space Conservation Plan; for which detailed information may be viewed here: PSRC Open Space Conservation Plan Website . This regional plan was published in final form on July 2, 2018, and is intended to accelerate the conservation of open space now and into the future.  Trails, parks, forests, farms and many other kinds of open space make the Puget Sound region a special place to live.  The Regional Open Space Conservation Plan is intended to knit together open space and related plans from counties, tribes, resource agencies, salmon recovery groups, and other organizations. The plan identifies and elevates these open space needs to attract funding and support.

The draft Regional Open Space Conservation Plan was reviewed by the GMVUAC, and our comments to the proposed plan may be read here:  PSRC ROSCP Comments_03 07 2018 .  Some highlights from our Comments on the Draft Plan include: (1) Identification of conservation priorities to sustain our open spaces and ecological systems; (2) Use of a “watershed” approach as critical to addressing key ecological factors; (3) Recognition open spaces help directly and indirectly support our Rural Area economy; (4) Concern for the loss of working farmland as development pressures continue to be exerted; and (5) Coordinated planning among and within agencies and jurisdictions.

2018 Regional Transportation Plan 

The GMVUAC, in alliance with three other Unincorporated Area Councils and Associations (FCUAC, UBCUAC, and GV/LHA), conducted research and prepared and submitted detailed Public Comment on the PSRC’s Transportation 2040 in 2014 PSRC Transportation 2040 COMMENTS. That alliance also did the same for its major 4-yr update, Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), in 2018 PSRC RTP COMMENTS. The adopted RTP can be found at: https://www.psrc.org/our-work/rtp

2017 Regional Economic Strategies (RES)

The GMVUAC prepared and submitted detailed Public Comment: PSRC RES Detailed Comments. The adopted RTP can be found at: https://www.psrc.org/our-work/regional-economic-strategy

GMVUAC-PSRC “Summit Meetings”

The GMVUAC has convened major “Summit Meetings” with the PSRC on three occasions:

November 2017

The GMVUAC Economic Committee, in association with the other Unincorporated Community Area Councils and Associations, convened the “Puget Sound Regional Council – King County Rural Economic Opportunities Meeting” featuring Josh Brown, Executive Director of PSRC, and King County representatives, including Senior Deputy Executive, Fred Jarrett and Council Member, Kathy Lambert.  This forum was very positive and is intended to provide the first step in a continuing relationship with the PSRC and King County towards implementing the goals of our Economic Committee. PSRC-KC RA Meeting

October 2016

The Joint Transportation Initiative (JTI–a partnership between the GMVUAC and other Unincorporated Community Area Councils and Associations) convened a Regional Transportation Meeting with the PSRC to discuss the interaction between transportation planning and growth management planning.

September 2014

The (JTI) convened the Transportation Summit Meeting with State and Local government officials and agencies. See the four Situation-Target-Proposals discussed: Usage-Funding Imbalance; Assessing-Requirements-Accurately; Concurrency-Adequacy; and Annexation-Debt-Transfer.

Resource External Links:

PSRC:   https://www.psrc.org/