Metropolitan Planning Organization retreat Monday
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 27, 2011 1:50 AM
The Goldsboro Metropolitan Planning Organization will hold a planning retreat Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the large upstairs conference room at City Hall.
The session is being held to familiarize new MPO members with the duties and responsibilities of the organization. Although Monday's meeting is open to the public, MPO members also are considering a second session at a later date to provide information to the public at-large.
The agenda for the day is:
• 8:30 -- 8:45 welcome
• 8:45 - 9 overview
• 9 -- 10 roles and responsibilities of the MPO
• 10 -- 10:15 break
• 10:15 -- 10:45 documents and how they work together
• 10:45 -- 11:15 planning funds and how to spend them
• 11:15 -- 11:30 Wrap-up and questions
• 11:30 adjourn.
MPO members include representatives of the city of Goldsboro, the village of Walnut Creek and Wayne County. The city serves as the lead planning agency for the MPO through staff support including development of draft documents, meeting materials and scheduling, administering the distribution of federal transportation planning (PL) funds and carrying out the directives of the MPO's two sub-committee boards the Technical Communicating Committee and the Technical Advisory Committee.
The Technical Communicating Committee is the staff level of the MPO and is chaired by Wayne County Planner Connie Price. The Technical Advisory Committee is the MPO governing body and is chaired by Goldsboro Mayor Pro-Tem Chuck Allen.
The MPO has no zoning authority.
The Goldsboro MPO, that formed in 1982, is one of 17 such organizations in the state. The formation is mandated by the federal government after an area is designated by the Bureau of Census as an urbanized area.
The MPO is charged with developing a:
• Long-range transportation plan: A document that presents a 25 -year plan for transportation improvements in the area.
• Planning Work Program: An annual program of planning activities and programmed expenditures of federal planning funds.
• Priority needs list: A listing of local priorities for transportation improvements that is submitted to the state of North Carolina for their consideration in development of the Transportation Improvement Program.
• Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program: The local transportation improvement program that must be in agreement with the State Transportation Improvement Program.