Region Forward

COG's Region Forward Vision, adopted in 2010, focuses on creating a more prosperous, accessible, livable, and sustainable metropolitan Washington. It maps out ambitious goals and targets to guide future decisions and measure progress. In addition to COG, the region’s local governments and several civic and nonprofit organizations endorsed the vision and incorporated it into their own planning efforts. The Region Forward Coalition is leading the effort to advance the comprehensive vision plan and turn its big goals into better communities.

Following action by the COG Board in 2020 to affirm racial equity as a fundamental value, staff have been weaving equity into the vision and COG's work program. In 2022, the board built on Region Forward and sharpened the focus set in the vision by endorsing planning priorities for the next decade related to equity, transit and land use, housing, and climate. Taken together, these priorities form Region United, a planning framework for 2030.