The California Transportation Commission voted Nov. 12 to adopt the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) component of the 2014 Active Transportation Program (ATP), a funding package the commission said is intended to support walking, biking and safe routes to school projects across the state. Commissioners voted to approve staff’s recommendation after representatives from several MPOs addressed the commission.

The MPO component was part of a larger ATP first cycle that the commission said has $368,100,000 in programming capacity, with $47,240,000 set aside for the MPO component. Commission staff told commissioners the MPO recommendations were reviewed for consistency with ATP program guidelines and competitive selection processes. Staff asked the commission to allow staff, in consultation with Caltrans and local and regional agencies, to make technical corrections after adoption with substantive changes returned to the commission for approval.

MPO representatives thanked the commission and highlighted regional benefits. Melissa Garza of the Fresno Council of Governments said, “The Fresno COG received $3,900,000 in ATP for the region, for the 2 years of programming,” and urged continued support for additional sustainable projects. Rosa de Leon Park, deputy executive director of the Stanislaus Council of Governments, said the Stanislaus recommendations include roughly $2,200,000 in active transportation projects that “will provide safe routes to 7 schools in our region.” Kenneth Kao of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission said MTC funded 11 projects totaling $31,000,000 from 27 applications requesting roughly $200,000,000, and added, “69% of the approved funding would benefit communities of concern, which is MTC’s definition of disadvantaged communities, and that greatly exceeds the requirement of 25%.” Renee Deveroque of SACOG described funding distribution across urban and rural counties and said SACOG successfully obligated its $9,800,000 allotment. Sarah Jepsen of the Southern California Association of Governments said the Southern California regional program allocates $78,200,000 to a broad range of projects and that “82% of our funds ... goes to disadvantaged communities.”

The staff report said eight of the nine MPOs were bringing forward programming recommendations at the Nov. 12 meeting; the San Diego Association of Governments asked to defer its recommendation to the Dec. 10 commission meeting. Staff said the MPO recommendations include projects that would be funded with $133,670,000 in ATP funds and that the listed projects have an estimated total value of $608,021,000. The commission took a motion to approve the MPO component (motion by Commissioner Assemi; second by Commissioner Gilmetti) and the item passed unanimously.

The commission recognized commission staff for work on the ATP and presented an award to a staff member. The commission’s adoption now allows staff to finalize technical corrections identified after distribution of recommendations; the commission said it will return any substantive changes to the full commission for approval.