Transportation Addendum to the Public Engagement Plan
Public participation is an essential element of transportation planning in the Twin Cities metropolitan region.
This addendum establishes a framework for the region’s stakeholders to influence both long-term transportation policy development and short-term transportation programming. It details the methods and strategies that the Met Council will use to engage the wide range of stakeholders, from policymakers and business interests to residents of the region. It also identifies specific ways those stakeholders can connect to the transportation decision-making process.
The Transportation Addendum to the Metropolitan Council Public Engagement Plan was adopted by the Met Council on Sept. 14, 2022. The draft plan was released for public comment and comments were collected over a 45-day public comment period.
Foundation for an update
In March 2021, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) jointly released the Transportation Management Area Planning Certification Review results for the Met Council. This review is conducted every four years to assess how the Met Council’s transportation planning processes align with federal planning requirements. The review found that Council satisfies most of the federal requirements related to public participation, however FHWA and FTA identified three recommendations:
- Update the Transportation Public Participation Plan to include tribal governments and tribal consultation strategies.
- Identify an update cycle for the Transportation Public Participation Plan. Ideally, this would occur the year before each Transportation Policy Plan (TPP) update.
- Evaluate the Council’s transportation public participation efforts using effectiveness measures and include the measures and findings in the updated the document.
Updating the plan
Staff conducted a peer review of six Metropolitan Planning Organizations. The Denver Regional Council of Governments, (Portland) Metro, Puget Sound Regional Council (Seattle), the San Diego Association of Governments, Hillsborough (Tampa) Transportation Planning Organization, and The North Central Texas Council of Governments (Dallas-Fort Worth). This review compared the Met Council Transportation Public Participation plan with their public participation and identified places where the Met Council could improve and expand on the current plan.
This update also ties directly back to the Met Council’s Public Engagement Plan, adopting its engagement principles and building on its measures for success. The addendum expands and clarifies the definition of historically underrepresented people, includes the Met Council’s adopted government to government tribal relations policy, and updates and categorizes engagement methods to align with the IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation.