Revised Public Involvement Procedures for Transportation Plans and Programs |
|
|
THE PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT PROCEDURES FOR TRANSPORTATION PLANS AND PROGRAMS IN THE ALBUQUERQUE METROPOLITAN PLANNING AREA When the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 was enacted by Congress, it required that all Metropolitan Planning Organizations publish the procedures used to achieve public involvement in the local transportation planning process. This document was developed in response to that requirement. The introduction describes the Metropolitan Planning Organization and its structure, including the establishment of the newly formed Public Involvement Committee. The second section describes the formal procedures for public involvement in the transportation planning process for the metropolitan area, while the third section describes how a member of the public may get involved in the development of specific transportation plans and programs for the area. I. Introduction The Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments (MRGCOG) is an association of local general and special purpose units of government within State Planning and Development District 3. District 3 is made up of the counties of Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance, and Valencia (FIGURE 1). The association was created and is maintained under the Joint Powers Act and Regional Planning Act of the State of New Mexico. The MRGCOG was designated as the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Albuquerque Metropolitan Planning Area (AMPA; FIGURE 2) by agreement among the local elected officials and the Governor of New Mexico. Each urbanized area, in order to receive Federal capital or operating assistance, must have a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive (3C) transportation planning process which results in plans and programs consistent with Federal regulations. The MPO is responsible for the conduct of this process. The MRGCOG's Board of Directors is composed of elected officials representing the various entities which make up the MRGCOG's membership. Because the AMPA does not include all of District 3 and because of the complexity of the transportation systems planning and development process within the urban area, the Board of Directors created the Urban Transportation Planning Policy Board (UTPPB). Its membership is made up of representatives of those local governments that are within the AMPA. The UTPPB establishes policy related to transportation issues, assures coordination of local government transportation systems planning and project development, and provides a forum for cooperative decision-making among local elected officials. In addition to the member representatives from the local governments, advisory members on the UTPPB include representatives from the New Mexico State Highway Commission, New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department (NMSHTD), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Transit Administration, Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB), the State Land Commissioner, and the Sandia and Isleta Indian Pueblos. FIGURE 1 HERE FIGURE 2 HERE The UTPPB in turn is advised on technical issues by its Transportation Coordinating Committee (TCC), which is composed of staff-level representatives from each of the local member governments. Advisory members to the TCC include representatives from the NMSHTD, FHWA, KAFB, the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board, the Greater Albuquerque Bicycling Advisory Committee (GABAC), and the Transit Advisory Board. Liaison representatives include representatives from the Gas Company of New Mexico and the Pueblo of Sandia. A graphical description of the organizational structure of the transportation planning process in the AMPA is provided in FIGURE 3. Lists of the current representatives on the Board of Directors, UTPPB, and TCC are provided in Appendix A. As the result of an initial review and public comment period for this document in 1993, the UTPPB directed that a permanent Public Involvement Committee (PIC) be established. This Committee acts in an advisory capacity to the UTPPB and provides a mechanism for early and continuing input from the public at large in the transportation planning process. The Committee is made up of representatives from established neighborhood organizations throughout the urban area, representatives appointed by elected officials to provide a voice for those portions of the area which do not yet have formal neighborhood organizations, and representatives from other interested groups such as the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the Sierra Club. A list of the current representation on the PIC is provided in Appendix B. The PIC has been charged with being involved both in the annual review of the fiscally constrained Long Range Multimodal Intermodal Transportation Plan as well as the development of the annual Transportation Program for all modes of transportation within the Albuquerque Metropolitan Planning Area. Members of the PIC are also asked to commit to acting as informal liaison between technical staff and the public at large on transportation issues. It is expected that the role of this newly-formed committee will evolve to fit the needs of the community and the UTPPB as various issues are raised and as its members become more familiar with the complexity and potential of the transportation planning process in the AMPA. As a public governmental entity, the MRGCOG must follow the various Federal and State regulations regarding public meetings. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) requires early and continued public involvement in the development of transportation plans and programs for the AMPA. To this end, MPOs are required to publish the procedures by which they encourage and enable public involvement. Forty-five days must be provided for written public comment before the procedures are adopted. This document is intended to fulfill that requirement and is a formal statement of the procedures currently in use by the MRGCOG's Board. If these public involvement procedures are revised, the new procedures will also be published and 45 days allowed for written public comment before they are adopted. FIGURE 3 HERE As part of its annual review of transportation plans and programs, the MPO will provide for an annual review of the effectiveness of the public involvement procedures set out in this document. These procedures are also required to be reviewed by the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration to assure that full and open access is provided to MPO decision making processes. II. Procedures for Public Involvement An Open Meetings Resolution is passed annually by the MRGCOG's Board of Directors in response to the requirements of the Open Meetings Act of the State of New Mexico. The resolution requires legal notices of regularly-scheduled meetings to be placed in general circulation newspapers at least ten days in advance of meetings of the Board and its Executive Board, the UTPPB, and the Regional Transportation Planning Policy Advisory Committee. In addition, written notice must be mailed to any Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensed broadcast station and general circulation newspapers which has made a written request that it be notified of public meetings. Copies of the proposed agendas are available at the MRGCOG offices during the week prior to the meeting. Special meetings of these Boards may be called by the Chairman or a majority of the members on a three day notice. To meet the notice requirements, telephone calls are placed to broadcast stations and general circulation newspapers that have requested notices of public meetings. Emergency meetings may be called on 24-hour notice, with the same provisions for notification. In addition, each board and committee establishes its yearly meeting schedule at the beginning of each year. These schedules are provided in final form to all board and committee members and any person requesting a copy from the MRGCOG offices. A monthly schedule of subcommittee, committee, and board meetings is also provided to the Board of Directors and the UTPPB and is posted in the MRGCOG offices. Agenda items are generated through the MRGCOG office in close cooperation with the Chairman for the board in question. Proposed agenda items may include formal actions initiated by local governments, formal requests from the private sector, correspondence related to items of interest to local member governments, and any general items of interest to the local member governments. Included with the agenda is an ADA-required notice that anyone needing special accommodation may contact the MRGCOG offices within seven days of the meeting date to ensure that accommodation will be made. Copies of meeting agendas are provided to all voting and advisory members of the boards, media, and to the general public as requested. Included in the standing items near the beginning of the agenda is "Public Comments." Under this item, any person may comment on any issue which is not on the agenda. Members of the audience who wish to address an agenda item are asked to sign in with the recording secretary and identify the item they wish to address. They are called on when that agenda item is addressed. In compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, meetings are held in wheelchair-accessible meeting rooms at facilities with accessible parking. Tape recordings are made of public meetings and are available to the vision-impaired at the MRGCOG offices. Notepads and personal assistance is available to aid the verbally-impaired to participate at public meetings. Anyone wishing to attend a public meeting who requires the assistance of a sign-language expert is requested to notify the MRGCOG offices seven days prior to the meeting so arrangements can be made to provide signing services. Because the TCC is a technical advisory committee of the UTPPB and does not establish policy, legal notification is not required. However, the broadcasting stations and general circulation newspapers who have requested copies of public meeting notices also receive copies of the TCC agendas when they are published, approximately one week prior to the regularly-scheduled meeting. In addition, private providers of public transportation in the urban area and any members of the general public who have requested them also receive copies of TCC agendas. A copy of the agenda is provided to all voting and non- voting advisory and liaison members of the TCC. The process for developing the TCC agendas parallels that for developing those for the Board of Directors and the UTPPB. Members of the general public are encouraged to provide their input at meetings of the TCC when an agenda item is of concern to them. The proceedings for these public meetings are documented and distributed to all participating agencies in the form of summaries with the agenda packet for the next regularly-scheduled meeting. They are available to the local news media and the general public for review at the MRGCOG offices upon request. Official copies of the summaries may be obtained for the cost of reproduction. In addition, tape recordings of the meetings are maintained in the MRGCOG offices for one year following each meeting. Throughout this public process, every effort is made to coordinate MPO and state reviews of issues, plans, and programs so that redundancy and costs may be reduced. To facilitate the efficient use of local planning resources and to ensure that Federal requirements regarding public involvement procedures are met, the MRGCOG's procedures, as outlined in this document, will be used by the various local governments in the analyses of major metropolitan transportation investments in the urban area when those investments have been identified. III. Public Involvement in Plans and Programs From time to time there are issues of sufficient magnitude that advisory committees are formed on which citizens are invited to participate directly. A recent example of this is the Commercial Vehicle Network produced by the Urban Area Truck Route Task Group. The Task Group was made up of representatives from various neighborhood groups, businesses, and technical staff from the City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. Membership was solicited with over 300 letters to various neighborhood, advocacy, and business groups. The Task Group developed a draft Commercial Vehicle Network which is now being reviewed in much the same process that a document such as the Transportation Program would follow. Another example is the development of the financially constrained long range multi-modal transportation plan required by the ISTEA. One of the three committees working on the long range plan was a Citizens Advisory Committee. Membership on this Committee was solicited through several notices in the Neighborhood News newsletter produced by the City of Albuquerque's Office of Neighborhood Services. Members of the Citizens Advisory Group included representatives from neighborhood groups, special interest and advocacy groups, and the business community. With the establishment of the PIC as discussed previously, a formal process has been created for public participation early in the transportation process. As noted, the PIC participates in the development of the Transportation Program. However, additional opportunity for public involvement in this annual process is extensive. After initial review by the TCC and UTPPB, the Transportation Program is published in draft form and provided to the local member governments and interested members of the pubic for review and comment over a two to three month period. These comments are incorporated as appropriate prior to final review and adoption by the UTPPB. Explicit consideration of input received during the planning and development process and the response to that input is provided as an appendix to the document. A process similar to that for the Transportation Program is followed for all plans and programs, including the air quality conformity documentation developed by the MPO for the AMPA. Throughout the transportation planning processes, technical and policy information is available to any interested parties from the MRGCOG offices for the cost of publication. Details about specific documents can be obtained by calling 505-247-1750 or visiting the MRGCOG offices at 317 Commercial NE, Suite 300, Albuquerque, New Mexico. APPENDIX A BOARD OF DIRECTORS URBAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING POLICY BOARD TRANSPORTATION COORDINATING COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP LISTS APPENDIX B PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES
|
||||||||||||||||||