In order to achieve fundamental changes in patterns of water use in the region, residents and businesses must have a greater awareness about the region’s water resources, the impacts of excessive water use, and the need for conservation.  Customers must understand how their actions affect the natural environment and how conservation measures can save them money.  Pricing structures, technology, outdoor use restrictions, and development standards all depend on the water user for their effectiveness.  Without an educated consumer who is aware of cause, effect, and solutio

Around the country, state transportation agencies are exploring various types of innovative project delivery, including partnerships with private construction or asset management firms to promote cost savings and efficiencies, reduce risk, and/or leverage expertise and experience.

Pay-as-you-drive automobile insurance provides discounts based on actual vehicle mileage, with the highest discounts for those who drive the least.  Pay-As-You-Drive pricing can help achieve several public policy goals including fairness, affordability, road safety, consumer savings and choice, and reduced traffic problems. It helps reduce traffic congestion, road and parking facility costs, and environmental impacts. It reduces the need for cross-subsidies currently required to provide “affordable” unlimited-mileage coverage to high-risk drivers.

MetroFuture sees tremendous opportunities for increased density of use in many suburban employment centers.  Many suburban office parks and industrial parks are built with individual buildings separated by large areas of parking and landscaping.  Like suburban residential neighborhoods, these low density developments are difficult to serve with transit because large numbers of employees are dispersed across many buildings and many acres.  Floor area ratios of 0.25 or even 0.1 prevent the creation of additional density.  

At some public colleges and universities nearly 50% of incoming freshmen must take remedial courses in reading, writing, or math before they can qualify for college credit courses.  A new school-to-college study from the Department of Education and the Board of Education on the class of 2005 concludes that 37% of public high school graduates entering public higher education may not be ready for college level courses.

As municipalities throughout the region work to make their operations and policies more sustainable, most are likely to need technical assistance (such as energy audits) and policy advice from external experts.  Regional purchasing and assistance programs can help cities and towns to access needed support more cost effectively.  A coordinated regional technical assistance program can also help to disseminate best practices and lessons learned.  

Since many open space resources cross municipal boundaries, any effective open space planning must include a regional component.  However, this regional perspective is hard to implement when most open space planning happens at the local level.  Municipalities should aggressively pursue opportunities to meet open space and recreation needs through shared facilities or development of regional resources.  

Urban neighborhood revitalization efforts can provide existing residents with expanded housing choices, improved public services, new amenities, more nearby jobs, less crime, and other benefits.  As property values increase, homeowners (including low- and moderate income homeowners) see the value of their assets increase.  However, revitalization efforts can also have the unfortunate side effect of displacing residents and businesses due to increasing rents or rising property taxes.  

Building high quality schools requires building capacity of skilled teachers and effective administrators.  Building this capacity will require investments from both the public and private sector in partnerships, training, and support.  

One method of preserving open space while increasing density in designated areas is through Transfer of Development Rights (TDR).  As the name implies, TDR involves shifting the development rights from one property to another piece of property in a designated area.  The result is a (usually neutral) increase in the allowable density of development in the receiving area and a reduction of density in the sending area.