Vision
As the largest metropolitan planning organization in the United
States, SCAG has the critical mission of supporting 191
cities and six counties with transportation, planning, and
economic development efforts. SCAG recognizes that civic issues
are not constrained by local jurisdictional boundaries. Effective
planning requires close collaboration, strong communication, and
fluid data sharing across the region. The Regional Data Platform
(RDP) will provide a modern system for holistic planning across
the region, fostering a more sustainable and equitable future for
Southern California.
Purpose of the Regional Data Platform
The Regional Data Platform will standardize regionally
significant datasets, provide opportunities for local partners to
update their data in real-time, and draw insights from local
trends. More specifically, it will be an online tool for
SCAG and local jurisdictions to access data necessary for local
general plan development and general decision making by
monitoring transportation, land development trends, housing and
economic growth, and sustainability conditions. The platform will
also feature a data-driven collaboration hub for local
jurisdictions to engage with stakeholders for individual
projects, such as local and regional land use planning, active
transportation planning, greenhouse gas reduction strategies and
development impact assessments.
Moving beyond just technology, this platform will help government
engage with data in a simpler way, allowing the interpretation of
information into actionable insights and knowledge, and provide a
digital venue for local agencies to engage with their residents
using data as a medium.
Process wise, SCAG will enable users to improve the platform
through data revision and insight sharing, empower local partners
to use the platform for their own initiatives (thereby
spotlighting best practices), and ultimately foster continuous
experimentation at the local level by helping jurisdictions
understand how their plans could impact the region’s most
significant challenges – transportation, jobs, housing, and
sustainability.
Timeline and Rollout
Beginning in the fall of 2020, SCAG partnered with ten member
agencies from across the region to collaboratively engage in fine
tuning planning workflows and document requirements of the RDP.
Relying on feedback from outreach efforts, we are
developing a comprehensive database and suite of long range
planning and resident engagement tools to support General Plan
updates.
A pilot of the RDP will be operational for a subset of five
pre-selected member agencies in the summer of 2021. Their
feedback will inform updates prior to the system being shared
across the wider region.
As part of the overall RDP project, SCAG launched the
Housing Element Parcel
(HELPR) tool. HELPR is a web-mapping tool which helps
local jurisdictions and stakeholders understand local land use
and site opportunities for aligning housing planning with the
state’s 6th cycle housing element updates. HELPR is principally
based on updated, curated versions of parcel-level land use data
and other datasets available through SCAG’s open data
portal.
More tools will continue to be rolled out throughout
2021 up through the expected launch of the Regional Data Platform
in 2022.
