Becky Bradley, Executive Director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission (LVPC) was the speaker at the June 28th BIP Business Luncheon. Becky began by saying that every day in the Lehigh Valley there are 14,334,600 miles driven in and through the Valley. This is an increase of 678,600 miles traveled per day in the past two years. But, the state and federal dollars for transportation projects have not increased in nearly a decade. Because of declining gas tax revenues and state/federal budget deficit, the Valley may see as much as a 30% drop in transportation funding to the region. This will be a challenge to the Lehigh Valley Transportation Study which is the transportation planning and funding component of the LVPC.
Becky indicated that 77% of the Lehigh Valley’s land is developed which is an average of 1,280 acres developed per year. Between January and May of this year, 2,604 acres have been proposed for development. A high percentage of that is in industrial and warehousing. For the past couple of years, the LVPC has been working on the regional Comprehensive Plan which is called FutureLV. To this Bradley said, “If we want to maintain what we value most we must have a different strategy.” Therefore, the working goals being developed include:
- An efficient and coordinated development pattern
- A connected mixed-transportation region
- A protected and vibrant environment
- A competitive creative and sustainable region
- A safe, healthy, inclusive and livable community
In ending her talk Becky quoted Albert Einstein “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” This is how the LVPC. the counties. and the 62 municipalities need to look at the future of the Lehigh Valley.
There is a lot of good information on the LVPC’s website @ www.lvpc.org.