By 2040, the San Antonio area will have nearly 1.5 million new residents raising the region’s population to over 3.4 million people. That means we could see an additional one million motor vehicles on our already congested roadways. To meet this challenge, the MPO must have both long and short range plans. Our 25-year Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) is the blueprint for our future transportation system while the first four years of the plan is also called the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).
Public input is crucial to good planning so the MPO is conducting a series of six identical public meetings in late February and early March. The meetings are to receive public input on: 1) projects proposed for funding using the MPO’s discretionary funding source, 2) other federally funded roadway and transit projects, and 3) three potential long term population and employment growth scenarios to be used for developing the region’s long range transportation plan.
For the TIP, 55 projects totaling approximately $435 million have been requested by partner agencies for MPO funding. As expected, the funding requested far exceeds the available funding of about $55 million. Public input is needed to help the MPO Transportation Policy Board decide which projects should be funded.
Public input is also needed for three potential growth scenarios developed for the MPO’s next long range plan, Mobility 2040. The growth scenario (or combination of scenarios) selected by the Transportation Policy Board will be used with the MPO’s transportation demand model to determine future transportation needs.
The meetings begin with a presentation at 6 p.m. followed by small group discussions and then two input exercises. Meeting dates and locations are:
Northwest San Antonio, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 25 at the Leon Valley Community Center, 6421 Evers Road, Leon Valley, Texas
New Braunfels and Comal County, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 26 at the New Braunfels Civic Center, 375 S. Castell Avenue, New Braunfels, Texas
Northeast San Antonio, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Thursday, February 27 at the Woodlake Hills Middle School, 6625 Woodlake Parkway, San Antonio, Texas
Seguin and Guadalupe County, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Monday, March 3 at the Seguin – Guadalupe County Coliseum, 950 S. Austin Street, Seguin, Texas
Boerne and Kendall County, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 5 at the Boerne Civic Center, 820 Adler Road, Boerne, Texas
Southcentral San Antonio, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Thursday, March 6 at the Harlandale Civic Center, 115 W. Southcross Blvd, San Antonio, Texas
For more information on the Fiscal Year 2015-2018 TIP, please click here. For more information on Mobility 2040, please click here or call Jeanne Geiger at 210-227-8651.
MPO meetings are accessible to persons with disabilities. To request special assistance or an interpreter, please call 210-227-8651 or TDD 1-800-735-2989 (Relay Texas) at least five working days in advance. For more information, please call 210-227-8651.
About MPOs: Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) are created by federal law to conduct a cooperative transportation planning process that brings our region over $200 million annually in state and federal transportation funding for roadway, transit, rideshare, bicycle and pedestrian projects. For more general information on the MPO, please visit our website at www.sametroplan.org