Job growth to get more competitive, regional planners say

Job growth in southeastern Wisconsin over the next 35 years will depend on communities in the seven-county region competing directly with other metropolitan areas in the United States for workers, regional planners say.

For the first time since the post-World War II baby boom generation filled available jobs, and an equal number of women joined men in the labor force, the region’s communities need to play a greater role in attracting workers of all ages for their local employers, according to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission in Waukesha.

“If the region does not compete strongly to attract needed workers, economic growth cannot be expected to occur,” the commission says in its draft Vision 2050 plan....

.... Among the recommendations:

¦ Focus urban development in areas that can be efficiently served by municipal water, sewer and other services.

¦ Preserve the most productive agricultural land.

¦ Protect primary environmental corridors that encompass the best remaining natural resources: water bodies, wetlands, woodlands and other open spaces.

¦ Encourage more compact development within communities. Examples are high-density housing and commercial growth close to transit, and residential neighborhoods within walking distance of parks, schools and businesses.

¦ Allow a mix of affordable housing, including multifamily residences and single-family homes on small lots. With less distance between housing, municipal services can be provided at less public cost than extending pipes and pavement to sprawling, large-lot subdivisions.

¦ Improve and expand public transit, both local bus services as well as the addition of bus rapid transit, expansion of streetcar routes, and the extension of commuter rail beyond the Milwaukee to Chicago corridor....

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Notes: WOW I have been preaching this sermon for 8 years now, I thought no one was listening... Please share this link and rewrite this story it HAS to be told!