Long Range Plan Update: Built to Thrive Takes Shape as Experts Set the Course   

By Mason Fish
SPC
7/29/2026

On July 17, a massive gathering of experts from across Southwestern Pennsylvania entered Washington County with a clear shared task: help lock in the vision and goals for the region’s next Long Range Plan. 

SPC’s Policy Development Conference marked the end of this cycle’s expert-driven stretch of work on Built to Thrive: The Long Range Plan for Southwestern PA. These sessions were reserved for specialists from a variety of organizations including PennDOT, Pittsburgh Regional Transit and other partner agencies. 

The majority of those that were in the room already work closely with SPC on transportation and economic development issues, and represent the technical knowledge needed to test ideas before the wider public is invited in.  

More than 100 people took part in the expert panels. The experts also helped shape the strategies presented that Friday, allowing the attendees to weigh in on which ones should stay and which ones should go. Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis also closed the day as guest keynote speaker, sharing the stage with SPC Executive Director Rich Fitzgerald. 

The Expert Panel Process 

Of course, staff could have drafted a set of strategies in a few hours. However, that is not an approach that SPC ever wishes to take, because collaborative input from all stakeholders is.a key part of the planning process. 

“We just want the commission members to have a comfort level that we did our due diligence in developing these strategies. They just weren’t developed by staff or just developed by one or two commissioners,” said Ryan Gordon.  

Gordon, who facilitated one of the expert tables at the event, currently serves as SPC’s Transportation Program Development Manager and has worked on countless SPC plans over his near-two decades at SPC. 

The expert –panel discussions were utilized to create a clear path. People who know their fields inside and out were involved from the very beginning, which allows the region to reach an endpoint through deliberate steps rather than a closed conversation. 

Furthermore, Built to Thrive continues the approach SPC began in 2019 of combining its long-range transportation plan with the comprehensive economic development strategy. The result is a single policy framework for the entire SPC region’s vision, goals, objectives, and strategies. This framework represents the aspirational side of what SPC does, while also showing what a competitive and resilient region looks like. 

Programs and projects are expected to advance the same goals and strategies. Without that connection, a divide forms between the plan’s aspirations and what actually gets built or funded. Think of it like a personal budget: anyone can write down clear goals for saving money or completing home repairs, yet those objectives will still go unmet if daily spending never refers back to them.  

This same logic applies with funding at the regional scale. Commissioners and local officials often pursue opportunities for specific counties or municipalities, and regional goals/strategies give those applications a shared foundation. County and municipal plans frequently adopt the regional language as their own, which helps keep the larger direction consistent. 

Moreover, the engagement process for the plan has primarily focused on key stakeholders and specialists who joined the expert sessions thus far. True public outreach has not yet begun in a meaningful way, which is scheduled to change later this fall.  

Next Steps 

SPC expects to return to the public this fall, where meetings will again take place in every county. They will be open to anyone who wishes to attend, and any ideas or recommendations can still very much be considered and incorporated. When that happens, the most useful public comments tend to describe everyday experiences rather than demanding a finished project. 

“What I like to see is a comment that says, ‘I drive this every day and at this intersection there’s a problem.’ Those are the most valuable kind of comments,” Gordon said. 

When people report what they actually encounter on their regular routes in real life, patterns become easier to spot. A singular complaint may not move the needle, but when multiple residents describe the same dangerous intersection, the same unreliable signal, or the same missing bus stop, the concern then carries much more weight. 

Over time, some of those observations help to shape larger projects. They may lead to a traffic unit investigation, or perhaps a short study/road safety audit that may follow.  

Maintenance fixes such as signal timing or better signing can also solve some of these problems, while others will eventually become projects in a future SPC Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). When public comments line up with problems already identified by the agencies that own the infrastructure, that overlap is noted and credited in the documentation. 

This overall approach to developing the vision has stayed steady across successive plans. Outreach to stakeholders, experts, and the public has always been required. The specific sequence of expert panels and work sessions used for Built to Thrive is quite consistent with the current SmartMoves plan. It also builds on earlier methodology that SPC is always trying to fine-tune, as details of how the steps are organized can shift with different SPC staff and different commissioners. 

However, two elements remain constant: The process will always involve a large number of people from every SPC county, and it will always produce a clear set of vision, goals, and strategies for the region. Any long-range plan without that foundation would fail to serve its purpose. 

All in all, with the Policy Development Conference and all expert panels for this cycle complete, the expert-driven portion of strategy buildout is now finished. The months that follow will open the conversation much more broadly. Residents and organizations that want to shape how SWPA invests in transportation, economic development, and related infrastructure will have plenty of opportunity to do so while the plan is still rounding into form. Updates on meeting dates and locations will be posted at spcregion.org as they are set, so be sure to stay connected!