Thursday, September 29, 2011

Certification Planning Review Prelim Results

Just got out of our 'Exit Interview' with the Federal folks for our Certification Planning Review. Every four years, Metropolitan Planning Organizations such as SRTC are required to go through a certification review with the Federal Highways Administration and Federal Transit Administration. We've been doing that this week and just got some preliminary results. A report will be typed up and submitted to us in approximately 30 days that includes some recommendations and possibly corrective actions, but in the meantime, here's a little of what we heard today:

- SRTC needs to document our process for coordinating and consulting with area Native American Tribes.

- The process used to develop our Transportation Improvement Program needs some streamlining and cleaning up.

- The process of choosing members for the Transportation Advisory Committee needs some rethinking as TAC members currently choose additional TAC members.

- SRTC's Memorandum of Understanding with other agencies needs to be updated.

- Need to develop a Memorandum or Understanding with our neighbors to the east, Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization and Idaho Transportation Department.

There were also some commendations:

- The SRTC Board was commended for initiating change in management of the agency.

- The Board was recongnized for its insight on commissioning the Transportation Vision Project.

- The Inland Pacific Hub was recognized as a project that involves the entire region and encourages discussion and input on transportation and freight movement.

- SRTC was commended for pursuing the HUD Sustainable Communities Planning Grant (which we're working feverishly on this week)

- We're doing a good job coordinating with Spokane Transit.

So there you go. When I get the official report, I'll post it on our website and provide a link. In the meantime, any thoughts?

2 comments:

Charles said...

Glad you are doing a good job coordinating with STA. :) Does look promising for the rest also.
The STA advertised to get CAC members so maybe that would work for the TAC.

SRTC Staff said...

Yep, we've got a lot of work ahead of us to make sure we're dotting every 'i' and crossing every 't' but in a way it's exciting because we're kind of starting over from day 1, what with new management and everything.


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.