Growth Targets Extended Alternative

This alternative continues the growth patterns anticipated in current adopted growth targets, extended to match PSRC's 2040 regional growth forecasts. Future land use designations in local comprehensive plan maps provided a guide for the distribution of growth within regional geographies. Since these plans represent adopted public policy, which would presumably continue if no action were taken to alter the current regional growth vision, this is the No Action Alternative.

Under this Alternative, cities and counties would continue to encourage growth to focus in Metropolitan and Core Suburban Cities around the region. Unincorporated urban growth areas and rural areas also would accommodate significant growth. Nearly three quarters of the region’s new jobs would be concentrated in the region’s largest cities, while medium-sized communities would also become larger employment centers. As currently planned, many new apartments, condominiums and townhouses would likely be built in downtown areas near employment centers. Extensive residential growth would continue in the region's unincorporated urban and, to a lesser extent, rural areas.

While recent growth trends have resulted in King County assuming a larger share of regional growth than is envisioned in current plans, this alternative assumes that in the future the distribution of growth among the regional geographies will correspond more closely with currently adopted local comprehensive plans. The assumption of the No Action Alternative is that current policies are adequate, and there is little need to revise and revisit them.