Federal regulations require that the Lawrence/Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) adopt a new or updated transportation plan no later than Sept. 2007. Recognizing that update of Transportation 2025 is a major undertaking and one with significant implications for the region, the Lawrence/Douglas County Planning Commission, acting in its role as MPO, created a subcommittee to deal with the update of the transportation plan. The T2030 committee appointed by the Chair of the MPO initially consisted of three planning commissioners – John Haase, David Burress, and Lisa Harris, with staff support from the Transportation Planner. The committee has expanded to add representation from KDOT, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Lawrence Public Works, Douglas County Public Works, and Lawrence Transit. T2030 has initially been meeting on a bi-weekly schedule, but will likely switch to monthly meetings.
The MPO set a tentative goal to adopt a 2030 transportation plan by May 2007. The intent was to set a milestone earlier than the federally-required deadline of Sept. 2007 to allow some leeway for the plan development and adoption process. Staff has developed a timeline depicting major steps in the plan update process. That schedule is updated and expanded as needed as the project gets underway. T2030’s purpose and goal is to receive regular input from staff concerning the progress of the plan process, provide input and direction on the process, and be able to report to the Planning Commission/MPO on details of the process.
A consultant is under contract to assist staff with the conversion & update of the computerized travel demand model and to provide modeling assistance when testing of scenarios and roadway alignments is desired. The preparation of the plan itself will be done in-house by Planning Department staff. Staff is currently working on developing 2005 (base year) employment and dwelling unit data at the Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) level and assembling necessary data for the consultant to use in preparing the travel model. T2030 + staff will review and update the 2025 Future Land Use Map and request Planning Commission concurrence. Staff will then revise TAZs and the roadway network as needed and prepare 2030 TAZ data for use in the model and the plan preparation.