Stockton, CA | 2022

Cascadia Partners led a team of public health, housing, transportation, and public engagement experts to assist the San Joaquin Council of Governments (SJCOG) through the scenario development process of their Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy (RTP/SCS). The RTP/SCS is a mandated, long-range planning process that uses community input to guide the region’s transportation and development decisions over a 20+ year horizon.

This 2022 RTP/SCS scenario development round was the first time SJCOG conducted nearly 100% of the stakeholder engagement and outreach process online, due to COVID-19. Cascadia Partners developed the engagement and communications strategy which was deployed remotely, using virtual engagement tools such as Zoom, MURAL, MetroQuest, and social media platforms, among others.

A key cornerstone of the engagement strategy was identifying creative and compelling ways to develop educational and outreach materials that are accessible to a range of stakeholders (from technical experts to community organizers). Cascadia Partners staff worked with community-based stakeholders to develop a communication approach that makes the abstract concepts of scenario and futures planning into tangible information that resonates and is culturally-responsive.

In addition to engaging the public in discussions about the future of the San Joaquin Valley, Cascadia Partners used Envision Tomorrow, a scenario planning model, to translate public input into plausible scenarios for future growth in the region. Each scenario tested different policy pathways and their impacts on a range of performance indicators including vehicle miles traveled (VMT), greenhouse gas emissions, and potential increases in tax revenue.

The resulting preferred scenario helped SJCOG identify high priority transportation projects for the region and set policy guidance for the general plans of jurisdictions throughout the region. The RTP/SCS was approved by the SJCOG Board of Directors in August of 2022.