Honor - General Planning Project

by: Charmaine Robledo, Communications Specialist (Public Relations and Social Media),Denver Regional Council of Governments

The Denver Regional Council of Governments brings together 58 member governments from more than nine counties to collaborate on initiatives to enhance the region’s quality of life. One of those initiatives is the creation of the Regional Complete Streets Toolkit, which is one of the first regionwide plans of its kind.  

Shaped by a year-long planning process guided by a steering committee of representatives from local jurisdictions and other stakeholders, DRCOG partnered with Toole Design to develop the Regional Complete Streets Toolkit. The toolkit is a holistic approach to establishing safe, inclusive, equitable and flexible transportation networks for all modes of travel. This approach ensures pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders and other multimodal users have the same access to comfortable streets as motor vehicle drivers. The agency’s Board of Directors adopted the toolkit in October 2021. 

DRCOG's Multimodal Transportation Planning Manager Jacob Riger said, “The toolkit is an essential resource forthe Denver Regional Council of Governments, local governments and others to address the region’s safety goals. It also defines multimodal projects for funding through DRCOG’s Transportation Improvement Program and helps implement the long-term vision of the 2050 Metro Vision Regional Transportation Plan.” 

Along with the Regional Complete Streets Toolkit, DRCOG staff created the agency’s first story map as a companion resource. The story map introduces the toolkit, describes the toolkit’s street typology and provides context around the 10 street types.  

During the American Planning Association Colorado chapter's 2022 annual conference, DRCOG was recognized at the awards ceremony on Sept. 29 for the Regional Complete Streets Toolkit and accompanying Complete Streets for the Denver Region story map. To celebrate this achievement, DRCOG’s Communication and Marketing Division produced a video about Complete Streets that was shown at the awards ceremony.