Memorandum

City of Lawrence and Douglas County

Planning & Development Services

 

TO:	David L. Corliss, Lawrence City Manager Craig Weinaug, Douglas County Administrator Gary Walbridge, Mayor of Baldwin City Tom Pyle, Mayor of Eudora Roy Paslay, Mayor of Lecompton Brad Finkeldei, Chair-Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission Dr. Richard Lariviere, KU Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost Thomas Dow, KDOT State Transportation Planner
FROM:	Todd Girdler, Senior Transportation Planner
CC:	Scott McCullough, Planning and Development Services Director Christy Lane, KDOT  MPO Transportation Planner
Date:	September  10, 2008
RE:	Approval of Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Re-designation Agreement and Appointment of MPO Representatives

 

                During the last few months the MPO staff and others have been reviewing and revising the draft re-designation agreement for the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization. This agreement when executed will change the composition of our region’s MPO from a group of appointed planning commissioners to a group composed primarily of elected officials. This will bring us in compliance with the current federal regulations for MPO composition. This will also bring local elected officials more directly into the MPO’s regional transportation planning process. This re-designation action has been discussed by the MPO and KDOT staffs for the last two years, and now a re-designation agreement is ready for signatures.

 

                I will soon send the enclosed agreement to Lawrence, Douglas County, and KDOT officials for signatures and execution. Once this agreement is executed the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission will no longer have MPO duties and responsibilities. These things will become the charge of the new MPO. I am hopeful that we can obtain all the necessary signatures on this agreement by the end of October and seat the new MPO members soon after that.

 

                The new MPO will likely have important business on their agenda right away. At this point, I think the new MPO will need to meet at least once before the end of the year to approve the 2009 Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP). That document is necessary for our MPO to use federal planning funds allocated to our region. In order to avoid delays in important MPO business, the MPO staff would appreciate prompt action by your agency to select its MPO representative(s).

 

                The MPO staff recently met with your agency and/or sent them information about the creation of this new MPO and asked for your support and cooperation. Staff also informed your agency that a member or two, as noted in the agreement, will need to be selected by your agency for MPO duties. The selection of your MPO representative(s) can occur now, and the MPO staff encourages you to make your appointment(s) soon. Your representative(s) can be chosen before the last signatures are put on this agreement. Once your agency has selected its MPO representative(s) please contact me with that information so I can build a mailing list.

 

                I want to thank all of the people who reviewed and helped the MPO staff revise this agreement to make it a model designation agreement for small Metropolitan Planning Organizations. We received several helpful comments and incorporated them into this document.