In Recognition of the 60th Anniversary of the Denver Regional Council of Governments

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor one of Colorado's most respected and valued organizations, the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), on its 60th anniversary. Through collaborative cooperation, DRCOG speaks and leads with one voice while serving nine counties and 47 municipalities, and it stands as one of the three oldest

Councils of Government in the country. DRCOG serves as the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Denver metropolitan region, skillfully serving nearly three million citizens in three broad-based areas: Regional Growth and Development, Transportation & Personal Mobility, and Aging & Disability Resources.

Currently, local governments are represented in a cooperative and comprehensive multi-modal transportation planning process for the entire region while incorporating state and federal practices and regulations. The Denver Regional Council's Mobility and Access Council (DRMAC) ensures people with mobility challenges have access to the community by increasing, enhancing, sharing, and coordinating regional transportation services and resources with a vision of mobility and access for all.

DRCOG's Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI) has worked with the Department of Housing and Urban Development while leveraging the multi-billion dollar FasTracks transit system expansion already in place. The SCI just concluded its collaborative partnership of governmental, public and private-sector organizations to support the planning and implementation of its ideas to foster greater access to more economically diverse, multi-modal communities that will put less strain on our natural resources.

Now in its 40th year as the designated Area Agency on Aging (AAA), DRCOG helps people live independently as long as possible in their own homes and communities. DRCOG contracts with community-based agencies to provide a broad continuum of services addressing the needs of the region's booming population of older adults and those living with disabilities. In coordination with other stakeholders, the AAA helps ensure that community leaders are aware of the needs of older adults, the benefits of community-based services, and the costs to taxpayers of failing to address needs of seniors in the region.

DRCOG has a long list of accomplishments shaping the region in a way that benefits us all. From helping transition the Valley Highway to what we know today as I-25, including the T-Rex project, to the discussion about where to relocate Stapleton Airport--which we know now as Denver International Airport. DRCOG helped establish the Mile High Compact to help shape growth in the metro area in an intelligent manner and designed mechanisms to protect the region's air quality through the oversight of the Regional Air Quality Council. From funding major highway and transit projects in the region to helping with the formation of RTD, DRCOG has been involved with seemingly every major regional issue and project.

Please join me in commending DRCOG. As their motto says, they make life better.

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