The Greater Des Moines Partnership and the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines spearheaded the Capital Crossroads initiative, a nine-month visioning process focused on central Iowa. That visioning process culminated in a consensus-based, achievable roadmap to guide the area’s path to short and long-term economic growth.
The visioning involved in the Capital Crossroads initiative will become a component of The Tomorrow Plan and will be used as a foundation for the visioning phase of The Tomorrow Plan. Capital Crossroads is a broad look at the goals for the region’s next five years, while The Tomorrow Plan will take a deeper look at a number of issues out to the year 2050. Capital Crossroads focused on a larger geographic region that includes all areas located within a 50 mile radius of the Iowa State Capitol, while The Tomorrow Plan focuses on the MPO’s planning area, as shown in the map below.
These two initiatives have been coordinated since the summer of 2010, when both were merely ideas. Since then, the Partnership, the Community Foundation, and the MPO have worked closely to coordinate their respective endeavors.
How is The Tomorrow Plan related to DART Forward 2035?
Like Capital Crossroads, DART Forward 2035 has been closely coordinated with The Tomorrow Plan from the beginning of both initiatives. The Forward 2035 plan will serve as a guide for growing the transit system in greater Des Moines over the next twenty-five years and will include an alternatives analysis that will explore different options for rapid transit.
The Forward 2035 plan will function as the transit component of The Tomorrow Plan. It is anticipated that there will be a dynamic relationship between the two processes and that elements of the Forward 2035 plan may be adjusted to better align with The Tomorrow Plan.
The Des Moines Area MPO focuses on transportation, yet The Tomorrow Plan will address numerous other areas. How will these components successfully be addressed?
While the MPO does traditionally focus on transportation, numerous other partners will be involved that possess expertise in housing, economic and workforce development, the environment, etc. The MPO also has retained an expert consultant team to assist in the development of The Tomorrow Plan.
