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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: October 5, 2021 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 6-c <br /> SUBJECT: Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization 2050 <br /> Metropolitan Transportation Plan <br /> DEPARTMENT: Planning and Inspections <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> 1. Orange County Transportation Planning Andy Henry, MPO Senior Transportation <br /> Map Planner, 919-560-4366 (x36419) <br /> 2. MTP Process Steps Nishith Trivedi, Transportation Planner, 919- <br /> 3. Public Meeting Schedule 245-2582 <br /> 4. Orange County Highway Projects Tom Altieri, Comprehensive Planning <br /> 5. OUTBoard 2021 Comments Supervisor, 919-245-2579 <br /> Craig Benedict, Planning Director, 919-245- <br /> 2592 <br /> PURPOSE: To receive a presentation from Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro (DCHC) Metropolitan <br /> Planning Organization (MPO) staff on the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) <br /> Alternatives Analysis and offer comments. <br /> BACKGROUND: The DCHC MPO is responsible for long-range transportation planning for <br /> Durham County and parts of Orange and Chatham counties, and the organization is updating <br /> its MTP. In Orange County, the DCHC MPO planning area covers the areas around <br /> Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro delineated by a blue line in Attachment 1. <br /> The MTP, which is required by Federal law, recommends major transportation projects, policies <br /> and strategies designed to maintain existing transportation systems and to plan for the region's <br /> future travel needs. The Plan must be fiscally constrained, which means that projected revenues <br /> must cover the anticipated costs. Projects must be in the 2050 MTP to receive any state and <br /> federal transportation funding through the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). <br /> Projects are selected from the MTP and processed through the State's prioritization process <br /> (SPOT) for inclusion in the STIP, which is a 10-year funding program. This requires several <br /> steps over a multi-year timeframe, and not all projects listed in the MTP will be included in the <br /> final STIP. <br /> There are several steps involved in the MTP Process (Attachment 2), and the current focus is <br /> on the Alternatives Analysis. Goals and objectives were identified previously, and the Deficiency <br /> Analysis and Needs Assessment were completed in May 2021. An Alternative is a combination <br /> of improvements to a transportation network. This includes a set of highway, transit, other <br /> transportation improvements (such as bicycle and pedestrian improvements), and a land use <br /> scenario that depicts the distribution of population and employment for the year 2050. These <br /> Alternatives are then analyzed using the Triangle Regional Model (TRM), which forecasts future <br /> travel statistics based on assumptions concerning the highway network, transit service and other <br />