BIKE: Crooked as a barrel of snakes; road politics in Texas

[Roger Baker]

[CAMPO meeting tonight on this stuff!]

At the bottom are the federal regulations that  MUST be complied with 
by CAMPO in its planning and public involvement process -- at all 
stages.

http://www.washingtonwatchdog.org/documents/cfr/title23/part450.html

The problem is that under the Bush administration, the feds only 
pretend to enforce this law, just like endangered species. (When you 
loosen up on federal law, Texas special interests like road contractors 
and real estate interests move in fast. In the case of the US 183A toll 
road into Austin, approved last summer, the White House specially 
approved its $66 million federal TIFIA loan.  The road contractors have 
now given Gov. Rick Perry over a million in cash since he has been 
governor!)

In the case of CAMPO, this body put out a preliminary CD version of 
their 2030 plan last June and then nothing has been heard of it since.

What really happened was that CAMPO switched to an entirely different 
plan; the Central Texas version of the Texas Metropolitian Mobility 
Plan long enough to get the toll roads approved, under heavy pressure 
from TxDOT, last July. This CAMPO/ CTRMA plan that TxDOT used to get 
the toll roads approved as Austin area policy does not  comply with 
federal law because it is an $18 billion plan with about $10 billion in 
unknown funding, mostly for maintenance.

But federal law demands that all federally-sanctioned MPO planning must 
be based on plausible sources of revenue and a plan like the Central 
Texas TMMP plan used as the basis to approve the toll roads is clearly 
mostly red ink.

But due to federal requirements that CAMPO must do a new plan every 
five years, the old 2000 CAMPO plan now has to be upgraded. So they 
have now revised the old 2030 plan they put on the shelf last June, 
which they temporarily abandoned, during which they really used the 
TMMP to get the toll roads approved.

In fact, the public hasn't been involved at all in the 2030 planning 
process since they released their early version last June. They are in 
effect now pulling it out of a black box and revealing it at tonight's 
CAMPO hearing with a few upcoming hearings scheduled to make the 
process look like it has some public involvement before they finally 
approve it.

I presume they will make a pretense of making all the $10 billion in 
red ink, associated with the TMMP, go away by using hypothetical future 
funding sources so it will now at least seem to comply with federal 
law.

-- Roger

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§450.212 Public involvement.

(a) Public involvement processes shall be proactive and provide 
complete information, timely public notice, full public access to key 
decisions, and opportunities for early and continuing involvement. The 
processes shall provide for:

(1) Early and continuing public involvement opportunities throughout 
the transportation planning and programming process;

(2) Timely information about transportation issues and processes to 
citizens, affected public agencies, representatives of transportation 
agency employees, private providers of transportation, other interested 
parties and segments of the community affected by transportation plans, 
programs, and projects;

(3) Reasonable public access to technical and policy information used 
in the development of the plan and STIP;

(4) Adequate public notice of public involvement activities and time 
for public review and comment at key decision points, including but not 
limited to action on the plan and STIP;

(5) A process for demonstrating explicit consideration and response to 
public input during the planning and program development process;

(6) A process for seeking out and considering the needs of those 
traditionally underserved by existing transportation systems, such as 
low-income and minority households which may face challenges accessing 
employment and other amenities;

(7) Periodic review of the effectiveness of the public involvement 
process to ensure that the process provides full and open access to all 
and revision of the process as necessary.

(b) Public involvement activities carried out in a metropolitan area in 
response to metropolitan planning requirements in §450.322(c) or 
§450.324(c) may by agreement of the State and the MPO satisfy the 
requirements of this section.

(c) During initial development and major revisions of the statewide 
transportation plan required under §450.214, the State shall provide 
citizens, affected public agencies and jurisdictions, employee 
representatives of transportation and other affected agencies, private 
and public providers of transportation, and other interested parties a 
reasonable opportunity to comment on the proposed plan. The proposed 
plan shall be published, with reasonable notification of its 
availability, or otherwise made readily available for public review and 
comment. Likewise, the official statewide transportation plan (see 
§450.214(d)) shall be published, with reasonable notification of its 
availability, or otherwise made readily available for public 
information.

(d) During development and major revision of the statewide 
transportation improvement program required under §450.216, the 
Governor shall provide citizens, affected public agencies and 
jurisdictions, employee representatives of transportation or other 
affected agencies, private providers of transportation, and other 
interested parties, a reasonable opportunity for review and comment on 
the proposed program. The proposed program shall be published, with 
reasonable notification of its availability, or otherwise made readily 
available for public review and comment. The approved program (see 
§450.220(c)) if it differs significantly from the proposed program, 
shall be published, with reasonable notification of its availability, 
or otherwise made readily available for public information.

(e) The time provided for public review and comment for minor revisions 
to the statewide transportation plan or statewide transportation 
improvement program will be determined by the State and local officials 
based on the complexity of the revisions.

(f) The State shall, as appropriate, provide for public comment on 
existing and proposed procedures for public involvement throughout the 
statewide transportation planning and programming process. As a 
minimum, the State shall publish procedures and allow 45 days for 
public review and written comment before the procedures and any major 
revisions to existing procedures are adopted.

(g) The public involvement processes will be considered by the FHWA and 
the FTA as they make the planning finding required in §450.220(b) to 
assure that full and open access is provided to the decision making 
process.

(h) The State shall provide for non-metropolitan local official 
participation. The State shall have a documented process(es) that is 
separate and discrete from the public involvement process for 
consulting with non-metropolitan local officials representing units of 
general purpose local government and/or local officials with 
responsibility for transportation that provides an opportunity for 
their participation in the statewide transportation planning process 
and development of the statewide transportation improvement program.

(i) The State shall review and solicit comments from non-metropolitan 
local officials and other interested parties for a period of not less 
than 60 days regarding the effectiveness of the consultation process 
and proposed modifications within 2 years of process implementation, 
and thereafter at least once every 5 years. A specific request for 
comments shall be directed to the State association of counties, State 
municipal league, regional planning agencies, or directly to 
non-metropolitan local officials. The State, at its discretion, shall 
be responsible for determining whether to adopt any proposed 
modifications. If a proposed modification is not adopted, the State 
shall make publicly available its reasons for not accepting the 
proposed modification, including notification to non-metropolitan local 
officials or their associations.

[58 FR 58064, Oct. 28, 1993, as amended at 68 FR 3181, Jan. 23, 2003]
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