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WFRC unveils preliminary households-and-jobs forecast and interactive review app; feedback requested through March 28

Regional Growth Technical Advisory Committee ยท February 18, 2026

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Summary

WFRC presented a preliminary 2027'1055 households, population and employment forecast, described modeling inputs (Gardner Policy Institute county projections, UrbanSim), and opened an interactive app for jurisdictions to review and submit pipeline projects and future-land-use updates through March 28; a final forecast is targeted for May.

Josh, a data scientist on WFRC's land-use modeling team, briefed the committee on a preliminary households, population and employment forecast prepared for the 2027'1055 regional transportation plan. He said the team used state-of-the-practice tools and local inputs, and stressed that local feedback is critical because the forecast informs project selection, prioritization, and other planning studies.

Bert Gramberg (analytics) and Josh explained the inputs: county-level projections from the Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah (used to constrain population totals), assessor unit counts to get accurate housing-unit inventories, Department of Workforce Services employment locations for jobs distribution, and city future-land-use maps. The model run uses an in-house configuration of UrbanSim and a regional real-estate market model to allocate households and jobs to transportation analysis zones and city areas.

WFRC demonstrated an interactive app that allows reviewers to pan the region, view variables (households, population, job types) by year (2023'1055) and submit comments tied to specific traffic-analysis zones. Josh said the app will be available now through March 28 for local review; WFRC will collect comments via the app or email and prefers GIS shapefiles or PDFs when cities adopt updated future-land-use maps. The team said it plans a final forecast in May that will be distributed with the travel-demand model version 10.

Committee members asked how to give project timing and pipeline information; WFRC said jurisdictions should add projected start years, phasing, and unit counts (for example, "start 2027, phase 1: 1,000 units over 5 years") in the app comments to ensure the forecast reflects known pipeline projects. WFRC also said it will add the app link to the meeting follow-up email.

Next steps: WFRC requested review and comments through March 28; staff will incorporate feedback before the May final forecast and subsequent RTP adoption processes.