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Written by

Steve Davis

Published on

September 27, 2016

In an interesting move, US DOT has reopened public comment on the MPO Planning and Coordination rule, which proposed requiring urbanized areas with multiple MPOs to coordinate their planning efforts together, among numerous other changes. The proposed rule received over 500 public comments before it closed on the original August 26 deadline. (See T4America’s public comment here.)

The extension allows for an additional month of public comments, setting the new comment deadline to October 24, 2016. 

USDOT appears to taking the unusual step of leaving the question entirely open of whether any provisions in the proposed rule will actually be finalized and turned into new regulations. FHWA and FTA are requesting specific public comment to inform their decision of “whether to finalize any provisions within the scope of the NPRM” including comments on:

  • potential exceptions that should be included in the final rule, and criteria for applying such exceptions;
  • the impact of the proposed requirements for unified planning products where multiple MPOs serve the same urbanized area; and
  • detailed comments on expected costs of the rule.

Comments submitted under the extension should address the points above and previously submitted comments should not be resubmitted. Federal Register Notice here. T4America’s summary of the NPRM is here and T4America’s public comment is available here.

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