Regional Planning Committee meeting, May 2, 2003
Superfund Basic Research Program, Outreach Core initiative

On May 2, 2003, the Regional Workbench Consortium (RWBC) hosted a meeting of SANDAG's Regional Planning Committee at the Martin Johnson House, Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Special thanks to:
Carolina Gregor and Mike McLaughlin for encouraging SANDAG-RWBC collaboration.
Lori Holt Pfeiler (Mayor, City of Escondido), Regional Planning Committee, Chair.
Click here to read a letter of appreciation from Hon. Lori Holt Pfeiler.

Click here for SANDAG's May 2 meeting agenda

The meeting was called to order by Committee Chair Lori Holt Pfeiler (North County Inland). Committee members and alternates in attendance were Patty Davis (South County), Jack Feller (North County Coastal), Jim Madaffer (City of San Diego), Ron Roberts (County of San Diego), Judy Ritter (North County Inland), Patricia McCoy (South County), Maggie Houlihan (North County Coastal), and Jerry Jones (East County). Ex-Officio members in attendance were Gene Pound (Caltrans), Leon Williams (Metropolitan Transit Development Board), David Druker (North County Transit District), Bill Chopyk (San Diego Unified Port District), Gail Goldberg (Regional Planning Technical Working Group), and Carol Bonomo (Regional Planning Stakeholders Working Group). Steve Erie, Director of the Urban Studies and Planning Program at UCSD, and Keith Pezzoli, leader of the RWBC, Urban Studies instructor at UCSD, and member of SANDAG's Stakeholders Working Group, also were in attendance.

Click here for the May 2 meeting minutes prepared by SANDAG (excerpt pasted below).

LINKING PLANNING AND POLICY-MAKING TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(INFORMATION/ DISCUSSION)
This portion of the meeting was held at the SIO Visualization Center, which enables the display and integration of data sets for interdisciplinary research across many fields. The purpose of this portion of the meeting was to introduce innovative, cutting edge information and visualization
technologies currently being developed by the Regional Workbench Consortium, and to explore
how they might be applied to the preparation of the RCP. As an introductory activity, the Regional Planning Committee was presented with a "fly through" of the Lake Tahoe Basin, showing multiple topographic layers of the Basin and surrounding areas from a 3-D perspective. Next, the Committee was presented with the 3-D Regional Canvass for the San Diego / Tijuana region, showing the watersheds, fault lines, mountaintops, dams, estuaries, reservoirs, deserts, coastlines, canyons, bluffs, and other physical features of the binational region. The next activity was a demonstration of online interactive mapping capabilities currently being developed related to a variety of quality of life indicators and cross-border demographic and health information. For example, demographic data such as affordable housing can be queried and displayed upon other demographic variables, such as income, farmworkers, disabled, seniors, etc. Data layers can be interchanged, and integrated as necessary. These tools can assist in analysis, especially as related to environmental justice and social equity. The final activity consisted of demonstrating the Accessible Visualization Project. This exercise provided a bird's eye view of the Tijuana River Watershed, with "quick time" panoramas of certain features, such as snapshots of the border fence along the U.S./Mexico border. Committee members also were shown an infrared image land use history of our border region, showing vegetation levels and extent of development through infrared images in 1976, 1989, and 1999. Keith Pezzoli concluded by re-emphasizing that this region has an unparalleled talent in terms of technology and visualization, and that we can bundle these tools to help us solve land use and environmental issues, and to involve students in the learning process. He recognized the Center for
U.S. Mexican Studies for their involvement, and thanked the Regional Planning Committee for
coming to the SIO to hear about these innovative efforts to link planning and policy-making to
science and technology.

Regional Planning Committee (description taken from the RPC Web site)
The Regional Planning Committee provides oversight for the preparation and implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Plan (RCP) that is based on the local general plans and regional plans and addresses interregional issues with surrounding counties and Mexico. The components of the plan could include: transportation, housing, environment (shoreline, open space, air, water quality, habitat), economy, regional infrastructure needs and financing as well as land use and design components of the regional growth management strategy. The Regional Planning Committee receives input from the Regional Planning Technical Working Group (planning directors from throughout the region) and the Regional Planning Stakeholders Working Group (stakeholders from throughout the region). Recommendations of the Committee are forwarded to the SANDAG Board of Directors for action.

Memembers of the RWBC gave the Regional Planning Committee an overview (demo) of our various information and visualization technology innovations, including the Solid Terrain Model shown in the two images below.

On May 29, 2003, the Regional Workbench Consortium held its first annual EXPO ("Roll Out"). The Expo included an opening plenary, four information and visualization technology DEMOS, lunch and a closing session followed by a reception. 188 attendees participated in the event. For more information, visit the May 29 report