Milestones (and Lessons) Along the Road to Washington's Future

For the last three sessions, the Legislature has funded the Road Map to Washington’s Future, a collaborative effort to articulate a vision of our state’s preferred future and then identify revisions to laws, institutions, and practices needed to make that vision a reality. APA Washington helped fund the initial Road Map effort in 2017 and has actively participated in all three phases, bringing to the table the technical expertise and ethical perspective of planning practitioners.

This session recaps bills that passed in the 2021 and 2022 sessions and previews issues that are likely in the 2023 session. The focus will be on housing, equity, and climate issues with roots in the Road Map process. The panel includes people who designed and participated in these collaborative processes, distilled key themes, and helped draft and adopt legislation to implement important planning reforms.

Joe Tovar, FAICP
University of Washington

Coming soon!

Liz Lovelett
Washington State Legislature

Sen. Liz Lovelett represents the 40th Legislative District, which includes San Juan County and portions of Whatcom and Skagit Counties in the Washington State Senate. In the last few years, she has championed action to protect Washington’s incredible natural environment, implement smart urban planning, and increase access to necessary resources for families. She has sponsored legislation to conserve over 10,000 acres of kelp and eelgrass meadows, to promote energy efficiency in commercial buildings, to strengthen the derelict vessel removal program and keep Washington’s waters pristine, and championed changes to the state Growth Management Act to prevent urban sprawl.

Steve Stuart
City of Ridgefield

Steve Stuart (invited) has been the Ridgefield City Manager for eight years and previously served a decade as a Clark County Commissioner. His career has focused on public service helping communities manage the challenges and opportunities of growth in the Pacific Northwest. Steve holds Bachelors’ Degrees In Business and Sociology, and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Oregon. He participated on behalf of the Association of Washington Cities in Phase II of the Road Map process, titled the Updating Washington’s Growth Planning Framework project.

Dave Andersen, AICP
Washington State Department of Commerce

Dave Andersen serves as the managing director for the Growth Management Services unit at the Washington State Department of Commerce. He has been with Commerce since 2001, starting as the agency’s transportation policy specialist. Dave has served as an adjunct lecturer in the Urban and Regional Planning program at Eastern Washington University and is the past president of the Inland Empire section of the American Planning Association. Upon moving to Growth Management Services, Dave managed the agency’s last review and update of its Washington Administrative Code for implementing the Growth Management Act. In 2010, Dave was awarded the Washington APA’s Meyer Wolfe Award for Professional Achievement for his work on the WAC update. Dave was also the principle author in the 2012 update to the department’s Transportation Element Guidebook.