Washington Transportation Commission outlines update to statewide plan tied to Growth Management Act

Paul Parker, deputy director of the Washington State Transportation Commission, told the joint meeting that Washington’s statewide transportation plan is a statutory requirement used to coordinate federal, state and regional transportation priorities.

Parker said state law requires the commission to prepare a statewide plan that is consistent with the Growth Management Act (GMA). The GMA — enacted in 1990 — directs cities and counties to include transportation elements in local comprehensive plans, to align land use with transportation investments, and to identify how needed transportation infrastructure will be funded. He said the law also requires concurrency or other multimodal alternatives so that infrastructure keeps pace with development.

Parker described the commission’s current update to the Washington Transportation Plan (WTP 2035). He said the document is shorter and more focused than many plans (about 60 pages) and that the commission formed a three‑member steering committee (a commissioner chair, a DOT representative, and a representative from the state’s 15 regional transportation planning organizations) to make policy recommendations.

The statewide effort is being carried out jointly with the Washington State Department of Transportation and a consultant team led by Cambridge Systematics, Parker said. He said the update will identify gaps from the 2030 plan, revise the state vision and strategies under six statutory policy goals, incorporate outreach findings and respond to public comment.

Parker outlined four key messages emerging from the planning work: the update is incremental rather than a wholesale change; economic vitality and quality of life require a multimodal, well‑maintained system; the state’s role in certain modes (air, public and special‑needs transit) needs clearer definition; and there is a continued need for sustainable long‑term funding at all levels of government.

He also discussed emerging themes for preservation, safety, mobility and environment. Parker noted a court‑ordered DOT cost of about $2 billion to replace culverts on state roads to improve fish passage as an example of infrastructure obligations that affect transportation funding and priorities.

Parker said the commission issued a public review draft of WTP 2035 earlier in the month and is conducting public forums and webinars; the commission expects to revise the plan after comments and adopt it for transmittal to the governor and legislature by December.

He said an important part of the process is bringing cities, counties, transit agencies and state agencies (including the department that houses state housing programs) together so that bottom‑up and top‑down priorities can be reconciled in a single statewide document.