Submitted by Thurston Regional Planning Council
The Thurston Climate Adaptation Plan is the winner of two national awards and one state award for exemplary planning.
At the American Planning Association’s (APA) annual conference in New Orleans on April 23, the APA Sustainable Communities Division presented TRPC a national Award of Excellence for the climate plan. Earlier that evening, the APA County Planning Division and National Association of County Planners jointly presented TRPC and its main subcontractor, Thurston County, an Award of Excellence for the climate plan.
“The Climate Adaptation Plan was an enormous collaborative effort of dozens of Thurston region partners. It’s incredibly rewarding to have our region’s collective work recognized nationally for its excellence,” said TRPC Executive Director Marc Daily.
TRPC staff members produced the Thurston Climate Adaptation Plan over a roughly two-year period, using a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant and working with a stakeholder advisory group composed of representatives of local municipalities, tribes, businesses, and nonprofits.
The plan — adopted by TRPC’s council of governments in January 2018 — includes 91 climate “adaptation” actions to help Thurston County and the broader region prepare for and adjust to rising seas, stronger storms, deeper droughts, and other projected climate impacts. The full plan, as well as its companion board game and resilience toolkit, are online at www.trpc.org/climate.
At the Planning Association of Washington’s (PAW) spring conference in Chelan on May 3, the PAW and APA Washington Chapter will jointly recognize TRPC’s climate project with the Award for Excellence for sustainability planning, as part of the 2018 Washington Planning Awards Program. TRPC received the same award in 2014 for its Sustainable Thurston project, formally known as “Creating Places—Preserving Spaces: A Sustainable Development Plan for the Thurston Region.”
