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<br /> <br /> <br />ORANGE COUNTY <br />ORANGE UNIFIED TRANSPORTATION BOARD (OUTBoard) <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: September 20, 2017 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 7.b. <br /> <br />SUBJECT: Staff Update on the Orange County Process to Submit Projects to MPOs/RPOs <br /> <br />DEPARTMENT: Planning <br /> <br />ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />1. Draft Project Prioritization 5.0 Schedule <br /> <br /> <br />Abigaile Pittman, Transportation/ <br />Land Use Planner, 919-245-2567 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />PURPOSE: The purpose of this update is to review the process for generating projects for <br />official MPO/RPO project lists. <br /> <br />Each Metropolitan and Rural Planning Organization (MPO/RPO) works in conjunction with <br />its member jurisdictions (staff and elected officials) to create a project list to submit to the <br />North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Strategic Transportation <br />Prioritization (SPOT) process. NCDOT has begun its 5th iteration of this process, which <br />occurs every two years. In Orange County, the DCHC MPO, the Burlington-Graham MPO <br />(B-G MPO), and the Triangle Area RPO (TARPO) each issue a call for projects from <br />member jurisdictions. Through the MPO/RPO process, the lists from each jurisdiction are <br />refined to create an MPO/RPO-wide list of projects to submit to the SPOT process. Each <br />jurisdiction is required to submit projects within the bounds of the schedule determined by <br />each MPO/RPO as well as by NCDOT. <br /> <br />Orange County follows a process to generate project lists for submission to the DCHC <br />MPO for possible inclusion in the final MPO-wide list of projects submitted to NCDOT for <br />consideration in the scoring (SPOT) process. It is a fairly common practice to submit draft <br />projects along jurisdictional boundaries to the MPO in a preliminary project list. The MPO <br />provides the forum to discuss possible projects at a staff level and allows for discussion, <br />reconciling in cases of project duplication, and other coordination. If possible, advance staff <br />coordination is considered between jurisdictions. Later, with the benefit of scores, additional <br />coordination among the MPO and member jurisdictions takes place to revisit project <br />priorities and assign local input points. Overall, the primary goal of this process is to ensure <br />that the MPO submits competitive and viable projects, consistent with local priorities and <br />with consideration to geographic equity. <br /> <br />This process, which is repeated every two years, includes a series of key elements, <br />outlined below: <br /> <br /> 51