Prepared Testimony of Mr. Peter Gregory, Executive Director, Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission, Woodstock, Vermont.
Representing
the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC)
Before the
Senate of the United States of America
Committee
on Environment and Public Works
Hearing on
Transportation Planning
May 15,
2002
Thank
you Chairman Jeffords and members of the Committee for the opportunity to
testify before you today. My name is
Peter Gregory; I am the Executive Director of the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee
Regional Commission (TRORC), in Woodstock, Vermont. I am here today representing the National Association of Regional
Councils (NARC), our members, and the local elected officials and citizens we
represent. I am providing testimony on
behalf of NARC on the importance of transportation planning to regional
councils and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). I would like to discuss the success of the
Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, and changes necessary in its reauthorization
to strengthen planning, the role of local elected officials, and specifically,
how to better integrate rural areas into the process.
The
topic of transportation planning and the processes MPOs and councils use to
achieve it is important to my commission, NARC, and all of my colleagues across
the country. In these processes
transportation systems are first developed and discussed so I am glad to see
this issue is important to the Committee as well.
The
National Association of Regional Councils is a 32-year-old organization serving
the interests of regional councils, and Metropolitan Planning
Organizations. NARC is an umbrella
organization comprised of planning commissions and development districts made
up of large urban and small rural councils, and MPOs from across the
country. NARC provides advocacy and
technical assistance in and for environmental issues, economic and community
development, emergency management, and transportation. NARC emphasizes regional intergovernmental
cooperation to resolve common problems in all of these important areas.
Regional
councils and MPOs are created by compact and enabling legislation as consortia
of local governments. As such, regional
councils and MPOs represent local elected officials from cities, counties,
townships, and villages. Their mission
is regional planning and coordination across multiple jurisdictions. Regional Councils and MPOs deliver a
wide-range of programs and services such as, economic development, first
responder and 9-1-1, health care, infrastructure development, aging services,
air and water quality, land-use planning, work force development, emergency
management and homeland security, and transportation.
Among
all of these programs, transportation is key to the continued prosperity and
health of all regions across the country.
Access to employment and recreation, and the movement of goods and
services, drive regional economies and serves to bridge communities otherwise
separated.
An
excellent example of regional coordination and service delivery is the Two
Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC), which is one of 12 regional
planning commissions in the state of Vermont.
TRORC has planning responsibilities for 27 rural towns, most with
populations of less than 1000 residents.
TRORC performs emergency management, natural resource, land use and
transportation planning across its jurisdictions.
Since
1992 when the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) was
enacted, the State of Vermont has elected to obtain local input on
transportation investment decisions by contracting with Vermont’s regional
planning commissions. Each regional
planning commission’s work is guided by a transportation advisory committee
(TAC) comprised primarily of locally elected officials. These local officials provide the Vermont
Agency of Transportation (VTrans) with a regional transportation plan and
prioritized projects in all modes. In
Vermont, local and regional transportation policy is developed locally and
feeds into the statewide plan, thereby creating a seamless philosophy on
transportation investment.
This
comprehensive program to document local interests has served VTrans well since
1992. Successive Governors and
Secretaries of the Vermont Agency of Transportation have all strongly supported
the processes that regional planning commissions use to identify and support
projects. In addition, the Vermont Legislature has demonstrated strong bi-partisan
support for the inclusiveness of the process.
They have understood that regional planning commissions are closer to
the communities and bring a comprehensive and trusted approach to their
constituents. This innovative
approach to public participation has now been used by most of the agencies of
state government as a cost effective means to obtain an accurate assessment of
local desires. The regional planning
commission relationship with the State of Vermont is strong and is serving
Vermonters well. It has evolved and matured and has reacted to
changing circumstances whether they be freight movement or homeland security.
As an example of this relationship and as enabled by ISTEA and TEA-21, Vermont took
advantage of the opportunity to revisit highway design standards used by VTrans
engineers. In the mid-1990’s, Vermont
adopted new, context sensitive standards that replaced the previously used
AASHTO standards. Highway, bridge and
pedestrian and bicycle facilities now attain their purpose and need while
enhancing the built environment and protecting more historic, social and environmental
resources. Vermont’s regional planning
commissions played the decisive role in ensuring adoption of these new
standards.
Vermont’s
citizens have also benefited by the formal involvement by regional planning
commissions in transportation planning.
Through the 10-year period, the level of understanding by the general
public in transportation issues has grown steadily and dramatically. This, in turn, enables more meaningful input
for VTrans on project scope, and allows the public greater understanding as to
the constraints that are faced when developing transportation infrastructure.
Vermont’s
regional planning commissions bring many unique talents to the process, not the
least of which is the expertise in all the other disciplines that is needed
when contemplating the rehabilitation or construction of infrastructure. Vermont’s regional planning commissions all
bring years of experience in computerized mapping which delineates everything
from sewer infrastructure to wetlands and wildlife habitat. Integrating the extensive knowledge base we
have with the locally elected officials’ input enables projects to be designed
and constructed substantially sooner than would have occurred in previous
decades. This preserves the environment
and saves tax dollars while meeting the mobility needs of the New England
economy. Vermont is clearly a “best practice” in rural transportation planning.
Vermont’s
regional planning commissions need a consistent and predictable funding source
to provide the services that we provide.
Although they all have close working relationships with VTrans today, it
is imperative that the process TRORC has undertaken over the last ten years
does not falter due to changing economic or political situations.
Guaranteed
funding for rural areas to carry out planning is essential. As in Vermont, councils need funding to plan
the best transportation systems possible.
NARC will ask Congress to provide states with meaningful incentives to move toward the Vermont example of
seeking rural officials’ involvement.
NARC is proposing new funding streams in the next Bill, to make this a
reality – including a Rural Set-Aside for planning and projects.
This
Committee can appreciate a system that works well. Vermont is an example of where ISTEA and TEA-21 were implemented
successfully. This success, however, is
not replicated in all regions across the country. Local elected officials, councils, and MPOs, in many cases and in
many places, have less say in the transportation planning and decision-making
process, then those in Vermont.
NARC
proposes changes in TEA-21 to allow all States and regions to replicate the
success of Vermont. The association
asks Congress to smooth inconsistencies among States by adopting clear and
concise law incorporating local governments into the transportation
decision-making process. Local elected
officials, cities, counties, and regions, should not be left out of the system
because, at the Federal level, there are not clear voices sounding on their
importance in the process. For example,
in many rural areas across the country, there is no Federal statute that
requires States to formally engage local elected officials in the planning
process. NARC would like to see law
and regulation requiring this process.
Congress did ask the United States Department of Transportation to
promulgate their proposed regulation on local official consultation. NARC asks this Committee to reemphasize the
importance of this regulation and urge the Department of Transportation, in the
strongest sense possible, to move forward on its release.
NARC
is urging Congress to consider all its partners, not just rural councils as
important to building and maintaining the best transportation system in the
world. NARC seeks more funding for MPOs,
better coordination within State and Federal programs, and new and innovative
programs aimed at alleviating urban transportation problems such as congestion,
funding flexibility, and air quality.
Congress should guarantee States the flexibility to spend funds and
program projects based on their priorities and extend that same responsibility
and authority to all local elected officials.
Air
quality, planning coordination, and finance and fiscal constraint are of
particular interest given new directions in air quality regulations, the need
to better coordinate planning cycles, and fewer resources at the regional and
local level. These new regulations will
impact urban and rural areas in ways not yet understood. First and foremost, Congress should consider
air quality conformity as a tool to achieve clean air quality goals.
The
conformity process as currently legislated neither readily achieves air quality
nor facilitates an easy solution. The current process opens regions to poorly
defined legal challenges, faulty science, and consigns many of them to a
bureaucratic quagmire. While conformity
is well intended, and necessary, its application should be reexamined. Of no less importance to regions is the
assurance of well-timed plans.
Both
conformity and transportation plans should be timed together to achieve maximum
results. Required plan updates, plan
lifetimes, and conformity checks should be synchronized, and required less
often. By doing these two things MPOs
and regional councils can conserve planning resources and make plans more
meaningful to the public and their elected officials. To ensure MPOs and regional councils have the ability to plan in
the first place they need concise revenue forecasts and tight internal control
of their resources.
Fiscal
constraint on MPOs and councils is absolutely necessary, as long as revenue
forecasts are precise and fiscal standards consistent. MPOs and regional councils are held to
higher fiscal standards in their planning and programming processes then the States
that fund them. Congress should require
States to provide accurate revenue forecasts to MPOs and councils and engage
them in calculating these forecasts as well.
NARC
will also urge Congress throughout this and the coming year to consider greater
emphasis on safety in rural and urban communities, a balanced and intermodal
approach to Federal funding, comprehensive review and consideration of
technology deployment, and greater consideration of freight movement as an
essential part of the transportation planning process.
Of
particular concern to NARC members and the citizens they represent are the tens
of thousands of accidents and deaths on rural roads each year. Coupled with increasing safety concerns in
urban areas, this presents a sobering picture of travel on America’s
roads. NARC is urging Congress to apply
resources in new and innovative ways to lessen this tragedy.
NARC
is urging Congress to consider ways to streamline the project delivery process,
while ensuring the health of our natural environment. The ability to move projects quickly, especially those that will
make our roads safer, is of key concern.
Bound intimately with safety are new concerns for security.
Given the fact that many regional councils are
currently involved in emergency management planning, NARC will also urge Congress to consider regional
councils and MPOs as primary recipients of homeland and surface transportation
security funding.
NARC
would like to help all councils achieve the same success as those in Vermont,
and in other places, through a balanced, intermodal, comprehensive, and locally
and regionally led process of planning, programming, and project selection.
NARC
will be happy to elaborate at any time and assist Congress in any way. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman and Committee members for allowing the National Association
of Regional Councils time to present its views.