oversight and support for the effort. Special task forces such as those committed to GIS, housing, or transportation priorities were included as needed. Professional staff and community partners supported the effort.

The planning framework was developed by the Design Center. The private sector carried out framework studies, for transportation and housing, and created and maintained databases for GIS and socioeconomic information. The success of the effort was based on building trust between communities. City mayors, managers, and directors met regularly to discuss potential projects that had multijurisdictional impacts. Proactive leveraging of both public and private investments was critical to achieve the coalition’s objectives. In addition, collaboration both within organizations and with external organizations, including the private and nonprofit sectors, was needed.

The collaborative planning effort emphasized integrated subregional systems. Information sharing across political and jurisdictional boundaries was required to foster collaboration on common problems and challenges. The coalition recognized the need to have consistent, accurate, up-to-date, complete data and an efficient means of managing, recording, analyzing, and presenting the information. GIS technology was the ideal candidate because more than 80 percent of the data have a geographic component and this tool is powerful and simple to use. The coalition aimed to enable member cities to implement and access data-rich GISs and provide public access to coalition data through GISs. A coordinated and collaborative database and GIS were developed to efficiently share information to encourage consistent and cooperative subregional land use policies.

The data were gathered from various pools, including agreements with counties and cable commissions, secured grants from MetroGIS and the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) secured contracts from the Office of Commercial Realtors, and reputable GIS sources. The data were purchased and installed into the coalition data server and made accessible on the coalition’s web site. A GIS coordinator was hired to gather and prepare base GIS data and the coalition’s “On-Line Atlas” was established.

Cities, school districts, county departments, and state agencies submitted valuable data. This information included parcels, existing land use, future land use, generalized future land use, and zoning information. The 1997 Digital Orthophotos, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Digital Aerial Images, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance information, and building footprints were integrated into the database. Transportation information, such as road edges, traffic assignment zones, and road centerlines, was added to the database. Environmental data included major and minor watersheds, hydrographic information, and the National Wetlands Inventory. Other infrastructure information incorporated into the GIS included county assessor’s data, sewer interceptor systems, sewer sheds, and the location of wastewater treatment plants. Socioeconomic data were also integrated into the system. Many layers of text complemented the image data. Parcel and land use data are updated quarterly using unique automated procedures.

The data were compiled to create new demographic building blocks. This initiative required great effort and expense because no current Census data were available for use. A consultant was hired to merge data from schools, voter registration,