The Valdosta Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization is seeking representatives to fill vacancies on the committee for quarterly meetings.
Release:
The Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) organizes and hosts the Valdosta Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO) quarterly meetings. The VLMPO has three active committees that are assigned specific roles. The committees are the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and the Policy Committee (PC). Each committee contains a variety of representatives in the VLMPO area.
At the March 2022 meetings the Committees adopted the Fiscal Year 2023 (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023) budget and work program. Highlights of the budget include an increase in federal funds that includes funding to focus on the development of safe, alternative transportation modes like bicycling and walking. The work staff will be completing next year includes neighborhood transportation infrastructure plans in Valdosta, continuing to implement transportation projects (including public transit and roadway infrastructure), review of vehicle crash reports, among other activities.
The committees also discussed a recent presentation given to the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners about land use and forecasted growth areas and the impact different types of growth has on transportation infrastructure. This on-going discussion has led to the development of a scope of work for a corridor study to be completed for Val Del Road to determine future improvements.
A draft low-impact development policy was presented to the committees for review in March as well. This proposed policy will require MPO federally funded projects to implement low-impact or green infrastructure policies to address stormwater issues arising from new transportation infrastructure investments. This draft policy will be available for public review in April/May on the SGRC website at www.sgrc.us.
The CAC is responsible for serving as a public information and involvement committee that represents a cross section of the community in diversity and interests.
The TAC is a technical committee of professionals advising the policy committee on technical matters relating to transportation plans and programs the TAC is made up of city and county engineers, GDOT engineers, GDOT planners, local school board representatives, bike and pedestrian advocates and emergency response officials.
The PC is the regional forum for cooperative decision-making by principal local elected officials, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), GDOT and other planning partners.
The committee meetings are held quarterly (March, June, September, and December) by the SGRC.
The CAC is currently seeking for representatives to fill three vacant committee spots. The vacant spots to be filled are from the following local governments: The City of Valdosta, The City of Lake Park and The City of Dasher. If you are interested in filling one of the vacant spots please contact Amy Martin by email amartin@sgrc.us or by phone 229-333-5277.
The Southern Georgia Regional Commission is a regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency which serves 45 municipalities in the 18 counties (Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Pierce, Tift, Turner, and Ware) of South Georgia. Our dedicated staff team with local governments to increase the prosperity and quality of life in our region through programs including: Area Agency on Aging, Community and Economic Development, Metropolitan and Rural Transportation and Environmental Planning, Geographic Information Systems, Information Technology, Workforce Development and Small Business Loans.
The Southern Georgia Regional Commission as the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is a multi-county, federally funded transportation planning agency for the Valdosta Urbanized Area. The MPO conducts long range and short range transportation planning in areas including: highways and bridges, public transit, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, freight movement among other areas.
To read more about SGRC or MPO, visit www.sgrc.us.
