Twenty Years of Rural Transportation Planning: Revisiting and Renewing North Carolina's Rural Planning Organization Model

Twenty Years of Rural Transportation Planning: Revisiting and Renewing North Carolina's Rural Planning Organization Model

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  Twenty Years ofRural Transportation Planning: Revisiting and Renewing North Carolina’s Rural Planning Organization Program Tim Brock, PhD, AICP MPO/RPO Staff Engineer, NCDOT & Matt Day, AICP CTP Principal Planner, TJCOG and TARPO President, NCARPO National Regional Transportation Conference July 28, 2020
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  Enabling Legislation and OrganizationStructure
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  NC General StateStatutes “A voluntary organization of local officials formed through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work cooperatively with the Department of Transportation to plan rural transportation systems and to advise the Department on rural transportation policy” ~ NC General Statue 136-210
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  4 Core Dutiesof the RPO • Assist the Department in developing Comprehensive Transportation Plans (CTP) • Provide a forum for public participation in the transportation planning and development process • Develop and prioritize projects through the established prioritization system based on Strategic Transportation Investments (STI) law for inclusion in the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) • Provide transportation related information to local governments and others
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  RPO Structure • TransportationAdvisory Committee (TAC) – Local Elected Officials – BOT Area Representative – FHWA advisory non-voting member – Tribal Governments – Other members designated by the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) • Technical Coordinating Committee (TCC) – Member Government(s) Staff Representatives – NCDOT (Division Engineer or Staff Designee and other representatives) – FHWA – Transit Providers – Other Agencies • Lead Planning Agency (LPA) – 15 Council of Governments (COG) and 3 Counties
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  RPOs MPOs Number 1819 How Formed area identified locally based on common transportation/ land use concerns, with agreement by all counties; minimum of three counties required; cities may join and vote per MOU; MPOs are ex-officio members area identified by US Census, includes central city and other areas that meet density criteria; planning area may be expanded, but not contracted Designation chartered by Secretary of Transportation 2001-2003 designated by NC Secretary of Transportation on behalf of Governor based on population criteria by US Census and FHWA Population Criteria minimum 50,000 population and 3 counties minimum 50,000; special planning requirements for areas over 200k RPO and MPO Summary Facts
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  Funding Source Changes and ProgrammaticUpdates
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  RPOs Funding Change In2018, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) worked with the North Carolina Association of Rural Planning Organizations (NCARPO) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to update policy and procedures that reflected a change from state funding grant to federal State Planning and Research (SPR) funding as well as the RPOs role in prioritization activities in the state.
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  Updated Program Documents •Planning Work Program (PWP) • Quarterly Invoicing Template • RPO Administration Manual • RPO Title VI Plan • LPA Agreement • MOUs
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  Updated Planning Process •Community Understand Reports (CUR) • Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP) Process
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  Comprehensive Transportation Plan CTP2.0 Update
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  Take-aways • If youwant to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. (Collaboration takes longer but the product is better) • Change is the only constant. (Continuous state of improving and updating processes) • Money changes people (and programs) (Changing funding sources can require a lot of programmatic restructuring and administrative updates) • Be different….just like everybody else. (Streamline with templates and standardization; but allow flexibility each planning organization’s unique circumstances)
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  14 Questions Contact Info: Tim Brock,PhD, AICP RPO/MPO Staff Engineer, NCDOT tjbrock1@ncdot.gov Matt Day, AICP CTP Principal Planner, TJCOG and TARPO President, NCARPO mday@tjcog.org