Thurston Regional Planning Council briefs Lacey on 25-year transportation plan, warns targets unlikely without land-use changes

Katrina Van Every, transportation manager for the Thurston Regional Planning Council, told the Lacey City Council on March 11 that the region’s updated Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) looks ahead 25 years to 2050 and is required by state and federal rules. The RTP lists about 80 regionally significant projects and evaluates modes including walking, bicycling, transit, freight and highways.

Van Every said the RTP is constrained by realistic financial forecasts and is not a wish list: “the plan is not intended to be a wish list of things that we hope will be able to get done over the next 25 years, but it's supposed to be based in reality.” She said the update identifies safety, equity, greenhouse-gas reductions, system maintenance and increased active-transportation and transit use as areas of emphasis.

Why it matters: TRPC staff told council members that, even if currently planned roadway and transit projects are completed, the region will not meet regionally adopted targets for congestion, safety and greenhouse-gas emissions under current local land-use assumptions. Van Every said changing land-use designations during local comprehensive-plan updates could alter those projections.

Key numbers and projects: The RTP forecasts about 106,000 additional residents (a 36% increase from 2022) and roughly 58,000 more housing units by 2050. The document includes capacity projects that affect Lacey, including College Street Corridor improvements, an East Martin gateway transit facility and a possible Martin Road widening, plus trail projects such as extensions of the Karen Fraser Woodland Trail and other regional trail connections. TRPC expects to release a public review draft in March and to open a 30-day public comment period in April, with the council-level adoption process continuing through July.

Council questions focused on specifics: Council members asked about I‑5 corridor studies and intercity transit turnaround options at the Martin Way terminus; Van Every said WSDOT and Intercity Transit remain lead agencies for some of those efforts and she offered to follow up with WSDOT staff for the Tumwater-to‑Lacey segments. She also clarified that several proposed or realigned interchanges are included in the RTP, naming projects tied to Martin Way/I‑5 and others near Prosper and I‑5.

Context and next steps: TRPC will take public comments, revise the draft, seek a Transportation Policy Board recommendation, and request adoption later in the year. Van Every emphasized that the RTP will be revisited on a five‑year cycle and that local comprehensive-plan and land‑use changes underway could be incorporated into the next RTP update.