Washington County Jurisdictional Highway System Plan

About the Plan

At the request of Washington County, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) prepared a new jurisdictional highway system plan for Washington County. The new plan is an update to the Washington County jurisdictional highway system plan that was originally adopted by the Washington County Board of Supervisors on July 8, 1975, and later amended on five other occasions. The jurisdictional highway system plan provides a review and reevaluation, and recommendations as to which level and agency of government—state, county, and local—should have jurisdictional responsibilities for each segment of arterial street and highway in Washington County, and identifies which changes in jurisdictional responsibility, or jurisdictional transfers, are necessary to implement the plan. The new jurisdictional highway system plan also constitutes a refinement and amendment of the functional improvements—new arterial facilities and widening of existing facilities—recommended in Washington County under the year 2035 regional transportation plan, as adopted by SEWRPC on June 21, 2006, and is intended to be a functional, as well as jurisdictional, arterial street and highway system plan for Washington County to the design year 2035.

The new Washington County jurisdictional highway system plan is intended to help Washington County:

• Cope with the growing traffic demands within the County;
• Adjust the existing jurisdictional highway systems to changes in land use development along their alignment;
• Maintain an integrated county trunk highway system within the County; Adjust the existing jurisdictional highway system to better serve the major changes in traffic patterns taking place within the County; and
• Achieve an equitable distribution of arterial street and highway development and maintenance costs and revenues among the various levels and agencies of government concerned.

The plan is set forth in SEWRPC Planning Report No. 23 (2nd Edition), A Jurisdictional Highway System Plan for Washington County, and was approved by the Washington County Jurisdictional Highway Planning Committee.  The plan was adopted by the Washington County Board of Supervisors on December 9, 2008, and was subsequently adopted by the SEWRPC on March 4, 2009.

Washington County Jurisdictional Highway Planning Committee

The preparation of a new jurisdictional plan was conducted by SEWRPC staff under the guidance of the 30-member Washington County Jurisdictional Highway Planning Committee. The Committee includes representation from each of the 21 cities, villages, and towns in the County, the County itself, as well as from the federal and state levels. Specifically, this Committee assisted and advised the study staff on technical methods, procedures, and interpretations; assisted in the assembly and evaluation of planning and engineering data; assisted in the establishment, definition, and review of criteria; appraised alternative plans; and resolved any conflicts which arose in plan preparations and selection. Meeting materials, including upcoming meeting agendas, and past meeting minutes, can be found at the meetings section of the advisory committee web page.