Five-county Transportation Policy Board to hold public hearing, consider adoption of long-range transportation plan
The counties of Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette, Howard and Winneshiek in northeast Iowa, including all communities within, are designated as Regional Planning Affiliation 1 (RPA-1) by the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT). Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission (UERPC) is the state-designated administrator for RPA-1, providing multimodal transportation planning services, program administration and technical assistance to all communities in the five-county region.
Over the next four years, the RPA-1 region will receive approximately $55 million in state and federal transportation funding for improvements to streets, bridges, walking and bicycling infrastructure, transit and highways. The region’s continued eligibility to receive this funding is tied to RPA-1’s having an adopted long-range, multimodal transportation plan that is updated at least every five years. Additionally, all transportation projects in the RPA-1 region that receive any state or federal funding must be consistent with the goals and strategies of the plan. The last plan for the region was completed in 2014 and the updated draft plan, titled Safe Mobility for Everyone, is now available for public review and comment on UERPC’s website at www.uerpc.org/tip-comments.html.
UERPC transportation planner Aaron Detter, AICP, oversaw the year-long planning and public-involvement process and developed the plan document on behalf of the Transportation Policy Board, RPA-1’s decision-making body. The Policy Board’s voting membership consists of the five county governments and the cities of Oelwein and Decorah.
The Policy Board will hold a public hearing at its upcoming meeting to receive comments on the draft plan and consider action to adopt the plan. The meeting will take place Thursday, September 19 at 11 a.m. at UERPC’s offices in Postville, located at 134 West Greene Street.
Members of the public can submit comments about the draft plan via a comment form at the webpage link above, or in person during the public hearing. Written or verbal comments may also be submitted to Aaron Detter by mail at UERPC, 325 Washington Street, Suite A, Decorah, IA 52101; by email at adetter@uerpc.org; or by phone at 563-382-6171. Comments outside of the September 19 public hearing must be received by September 18.
