PSRC hosted the second annual Summer Planning Academy (SPA). Twenty-three high school students from across the region had the opportunity to learn about planning, data and different ways that planning impacts their communities. The youth engagement program started on August 7 and students met for four sessions over two weeks.
On the first day, students learned about planning and how PSRC fits into the puzzle of Puget Sound regional planning. Students then completed in-person community assessments of several Regional Growth Centers in Seattle, including Downtown, Capitol Hill, U-District, First Hill and the International District.
The second day was dedicated to transportation, with attendees crossing Puget Sound on the fast ferry to Bremerton. Students learned about Kitsap Transit’s new 100% battery powered bus and toured two transit stations. They ended their day with a tour of downtown Bremerton and headed home on the fast ferry.
PSRC decided to keep it local for their lesson in housing. To understand more about transit-oriented development, the students travelled to Roosevelt Station and toured Cedar Crossing with staff from Sound Transit, Mercy Housing and Bellwether Housing. The development is located above the Roosevelt station and provides 254 affordable homes on land formerly used for Sound Transit station construction. Bellwether Housing and Mercy Housing shared what it is like to operate the building that includes a ground floor bilingual childcare center operated by El Centro de la Raza.
The last day of SPA, students landed in Volunteer Park where they learned about the environment, urban heat mitigation and the importance of tree canopies. The cohort also visited the largest giant Sequoia in Seattle alongside local author Taha Ebrahimi, whose new book Street Trees of Seattle has been featured in bookstores across the region all summer.
The academy included a group project where students learned hands-on how data is incorporated into planning by analyzing Growth Centers they visited on the first day of SPA. The student teams looked at environment, housing, transit and demographics of a neighborhood and worked together to deliver a presentation at the last session to show their findings to their peers, PSRC staff and elected officials.
Students received a $500 scholarship for completing the program and left with a new understanding of what it means to be a planner.
Thank you to all the planners, agencies, staff and elected officials that took the time out of their day to connect students to something we all care about—planning a better future for the Puget Sound region.
