Regional Development

The Gateway Blueprint encourages long term regional design from the only place it can successfully originate—the local level. The Blueprint provides tools to assist communities in making decisions that affect the economic efficiencies, health and viability of both the local community and the region as a whole.  It offers a framework for public officials and citizens to evaluate how we make public investments.

The Gateway Blueprint studies three interrelated elements of the region—the economic, the environmental and the social. Through the Gateway Blueprint East-West Gateway Coordinating Council can assist local decision-making in a regional context.

The Gateway Blueprint offers a starting point for enhanced design and planning, and for project assessment and evaluation based on three core objectives and four guiding principles:

• Core Objectives:
   
• Improving Efficiencies of Public Investment (Reducing environmental impact of the transportation system, minimizing the need for new costly infrastructure investment, and improving access to jobs, services and centers of trade)
   
• Supporting Individual Choices (Providing residents with choice of homes, schools, jobs, recreation, and transportation within safe, quality, cities, towns and neighborhoods; creating a basis for equality of opportunities throughout the region)
   
• Strengthening Communities (Nurturing interaction, involvement and responsibility and providing opportunities for citizens to come together informally in safe, strong, stable and healthy communities of place and communities of interest)
  

  In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million.  This bold public investment significantly changed the shape of the nation. The bi-centennial of that event is an ideal time for St. Louisans to reflect on our region's history and our investments and to consider where we want to go in the next hundred years as residents of this bi-state region served by the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council.

• Guiding Principles:
   
• Encouraging Energy and Resource Efficiency (Implementing efficient use of resources and utilizing savings as investments in the community)
   
• Promoting Accessibility (Improving transportation alternatives and assessing development centers in relationship to transportation, in order to improve access to jobs, education, and services)
   
• Valuing Natural Resources (Protecting and restoring air and water quality; recognizing the natural landscape as a valuable resource; providing access to parks and open space; sustaining use of land for agriculture; creating and supporting tourism and local recreational opportunities)
   
• Building Collaboration (Generating intergovernmental collaboration to improve regional economic and social equity and regional security)
   

Among the many questions we may ask are the following:

• How will we encourage economic development opportunities to maintain and build attractive, high quality, healthy communities that provide good jobs and a sustainable future for today's workers and for our children and grandchildren?
   
• How will we continue to protect and utilize our natural resources to enhance all citizens' quality of life in the St. Louis Region now and in the future?

Gateway Blueprint Tools:

• Blueprint Model: St. Louis Metropolitan Area Transportation and Land Use Model: Run on the Supercomputers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the model enables testing and visualizing the impacts of land-use and transportation decisions.  The Blueprint Model simulates land use change across space and time, providing a basis for education, discussion and decision-making.
   
• Dialogue for Gateway Futures: Public meetings involve stakeholders in learning, discussion, and evaluation of land use and transportation choices.
   
• Partnerships: Collaborative efforts with local & state agencies, universities and communities to improve and enhance the quality of life in the metropolitan St. Louis region.
   
• Technical Resources: The East-West Gateway Coordinating Council web pages provide regional data as a well as analysis from a variety of perspectives.  Resources include regional census data, GIS based maps, as well as background information on regional development.