Memorandum for the Record

Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization

Unified Planning Work Program Committee Meeting Summary

May 4, 2017 Meeting

9:15 AM to 9:45 AM, State Transportation Building—10 Park Plaza, Central Transportation Planning Staff Conference Room, Boston, MA

Bryan Pounds, Chair, representing the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT)

Decisions

The Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) Committee agreed to the following:

•      Submit the Draft FFY 2018 UPWP to the full MPO for a vote to release for public review.

Materials

Materials for this meeting included the following:

1.    Updated New Discrete Study Description: Community Transportation Program Development

2.    Draft FFY 2018 UPWP Document (for public review)

Draft FFY 2018 UPWP Document Meeting Agenda and Summary of Discussion

1.    Introductions

Bryan Pounds, Chair of the UPWP Committee, called the meeting to order at approximately 9:15 AM. UPWP Committee members and MPO staff introduced themselves. (For attendance list, see page 4.)

2.     Presentation of the Updated Study Description for Community Transportation Program Development (Study Universe ID T-13)

 

Sandy Johnston presented the new, combined description of this study (previously Universe studies T-3 and T-13), as discussed at the April 20 meeting. B. Pounds asked to clarify exactly how much money had been reallocated between studies, noting that the combined budget for this study is $85,000. E. Bourassa complimented the new study description and thought it captured the spirit of the discussion at the April 20 meeting, and that it has lots of promise. B. Pounds noted that he, too, was happy with the description. T. Bennett asked if the $85,000 budget would be the repeating budget. S. Johnston replied that that number represented just the budget for the study this upcoming UPWP year, but clarified that the Community Transportation investment program is funded in the TIP at an amount of $1 million in two outer years of the TIP. There was no further discussion.

 

3.    Presentation of Draft FFY 2018 UPWP Document—Vote to Approve Committee Recommendation to the MPO

B. Pounds and S. Johnston introduced the updated version of the Draft FFY 2018 UPWP Document, with formatting and content updates since the April 20 version. There was a motion and a second to open the topic for discussion.

B. Pounds commented that the formatting was basically the same as last year. B. Pounds asked about the federal requirement for a geographic analysis of study and task distribution; S. Johnston referred to Appendix D, with tables to meet that requirement. E. Bourassa commented on the ability of communities to determine how much work has happened for them. K. Quackenbush asked E. Bourassa if MAPC keeps a running tally of where work products are focused. E. Bourassa replied that there is not one comprehensive way to do that; S. Johnston said that they could continue to work on that together. There was a discussion about the age of the municipal master plans that MAPC helps to maintain.

There was a discussion about the overall budget; K. Quackenbush explained that CTPS has less agency-funded work this year than in the past, but because 3C funds are up slightly and there was a need to distribute work more evenly, more money was available for discrete studies than the previous year. B. Pounds noted that two of the proposed priority studies are also being funded by MassDOT through Section 5303 funds, some FFY 2017 and some FFY 2018.

B. Pounds called for a vote on forwarding the document to the full MPO, which passed unanimously.

4.    Member Items

There were none.

 

5.    Next Meeting

The next meeting was tentatively scheduled for immediately before the MPO vote to endorse the FFY 2018 UPWP on June 15, 2017. Should the need arise to spend more time to discuss public comments, staff would alert the committee for a meeting on June 8 to review possible changes to the document based on public feedback.

After the discussion of when to hold the next meeting, D. Crowley referenced Appendix D and noted that Southwest Advisory Planning Committee had no studies funded in recent years and wondered what that subregion could do to have its needs met. A discussion ensued in which staff mentioned various ways for stakeholders to take part in the planning process, and members and staff discussed strategies for outreach.

 

6.    Adjourn

A motion to adjourn was made and seconded by another member. The motion carried unanimously.

 

 


Attendance

Organization

Name

Massachusetts Department of Transportation

Bryan Pounds

Metropolitan Area Planning Council                                                                                              

Eric Bourassa

City of Boston

Tom Kadzis

At-Large Town (Town of Arlington)

Laura Wiener

At-Large City (City of Newton)

David Koses

SouthWest Advisory Planning Committee (Town of Medway)

Dennis Crowley

Inner Core Committee (City of Somerville)

Tom Bent

Three Rivers Interlocal Council (Town of Norwood/Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce)

 

Three Rivers Interlocal Council (Town of Norwood/Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce)

 

Regional Transportation Advisory Council

Tegin Teich Bennett

 

MPO Staff/Central Transportation Planning Staff

Karl Quackenbush, Executive Director

Robin Mannion, Deputy Executive Director

Elizabeth Moore, Director of Policy and Planning

Lourenηo Dantas, Certification Activities Group Manager

Sandy Johnston, UPWP Manager

Mark Abbott, Traffic Analysis and Design Group Manager