Regional Innovation Forum, Land Use and Climate Change

I was fortunate to participate in just over a day and a half Regional Innovation Forum this past Friday and Saturday.  Since COC-er Dave Mayfield had the electric vehicle track covered on Friday, I attended the Social Innovation track. Some very inspiring persons doing good work in Portland, regionally and in the world.  In these sometimes gloomy days, I needed the inspiration!

The Climate Change Solutions Summit Saturday was what I was really hopeful for.  The afternoon session sponsored by Metro and was focused on Climate Change. I was not disappointed.  There was a good mix of efforts underway regionally, and time was sufficient for focused discussion in small groups.  From the panel presentation, an Oregon Environmental Council rep answered my most burning question du jour:  where is the state on focusing on land use transportation targets to help meet Western Climate Initiative/ Kyoto Protocol goals (e.g., akin to California’s work)?

Turns out the Govenor’s Jobs and Transportation Act was supposed to include targets akin to California’s regional planning targets, but it was inadvertently left out!  Therefore, this post is a call to action to all planners.  Since we wonk it up for a living, we need to pay attention to this now.  It would be a huge shame if this session ended without a good start on land use and transportation strategies to help focus our collective efforts on climate change causing greenhouse gas reduction actions.

A bill I have seen thanks to Dave’s attendance at the Governor’s Alternate Fuels Infrastructure Working group is HB 3311 introduced by Representative Greenlick. It looks to me like this bill may be attempting to move the land use transportation GHG reduction target conversation forward if it doesn’t make it back into the Jobs and Transportation Bill.  Please stay tuned!

More on the fabulous Regional Innovation Forum later.