Overview
As the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Colorado Springs urbanized area, the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments (PPACG) is responsible for developing and maintaining a long-range regional transportation plan and the supporting short-range implementation program.
Understanding that each county and municipality within the Pikes Peak Region has unique characteristics and needs, the 2050 Pikes Peak Region Long Range Transportation Plan seeks to collaboratively establish a foundation for transportation planning for the next 25 years.
This plan includes a vision and goals for regional transportation, evaluates the system as a whole, brings together local agency studies, identifies strategies for implementation, and provides information to assist decision makers in future development within the region.
The region’s previous transportation plan, the Moving Forward 2045 Regional Transportation Plan, was adopted in January 2020. This plan updates that plan and addresses all of the performance-based planning requirements established with federal transportation legislation, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). In its entirety, the plan meets the requirements for its composition and preparation process, and demonstrates conformity with applicable laws and regulations.
Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments
Formed in 1967 under Colorado laws regarding regional planning and intergovernmental contracting, PPACG is not a unit of local government, but an organization of local governments whose purpose is to identify regional problems and opportunities, develop solutions, and make recommendations on region-wide strategies. This regional approach serves to facilitate state and federal funding for local programs and projects.
PPACG is the designated Council of Governments (COG) for the region encompassing El Paso, Park, and Teller counties. It is also the state-designated MPO for the Colorado Springs Urbanized Area.
As the COG, PPACG is a voluntary organization composed of 16 member governments: the counties of El Paso, Park, and Teller; the cities of Colorado Springs, Cripple Creek, Fountain, Manitou Springs, Victor, and Woodland Park; and the towns of Alma, Calhan, Fairplay, Green Mountain Falls, Monument, Palmer Lake, and Ramah. Elected officials appointed by these members compose the governing body of PPACG, the Board of Directors.
PPACG Metropolitan Planning Organization and Plan Area
While the COG is a voluntary organization, the MPO is instead a federally mandated and federally funded transportation organization made up of representatives from local government and governmental transportation authorities. The Federal Highway Act of 1962 requires the formation of an MPO for any urbanized area with a population of greater than 50,000.
Congress created MPOs to ensure that federal transportation funding is based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive planning process. It is the job of the MPO to help allocate federal transportation funding to projects that reflect the region’s shared vision for its future.
Figure 1-1 depicts the COG boundary and the Pikes Peak Metropolitan Planning Area boundary. This boundary must encompass at least the existing urbanized area and the contiguous area expected to become urbanized within a 20-year forecast period for the transportation plan and may encompass the entire metropolitan statistical area or consolidated metropolitan statistical area (MSA), as defined by the Bureau of the Census.
Figure 1-1: COG and MPO Boundaries
Figure 1-2, on the following page, provides more detail regarding the MPO area with relation to the municipal, county, and military installation boundaries that fall within or cross the MPO area.
Figure 1-2: MPO Boundary
While this plan considers issues that extend into the COG area, this plan is limited to the MPO boundary. Areas within the COG that fall outside of the MPO undergo a separate planning process as part of the Central Front Range (CFR) Transportation Planning Region (TPR). The CFR TPR long range plan is developed by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT).
Plan Purpose and Scope
The objective of regional long range transportation planning is to provide a strategic framework for the development, operation, and management of the transportation system within the larger context of the region’s economic, social, mobility, and environmental goals. Planning must be flexible to adapt to changing economic and technological conditions and forward-thinking enough to maximize return on investment, all while minimizing negative impacts.
Long range transportation plans are required to comply with federal and state laws for regional and statewide planning, in order for the region to be eligible for federal transportation funding. Projects must be consistent with the LRTP to be eligible for federal funding.
Further, all transportation projects that are regionally significantly, or impact air quality within the metropolitan planning area, regardless of the source of funding, must be included in the plan. The primary purpose of the plan is to develop a strategy for the best use of public funds in meeting community goals.
This plan:
- Includes a 20 or more year horizon;
- Describes the multimodal transportation system components designed to facilitate mobility of people and goods throughout the region;
- Is fiscally constrained, which means that projects can only be included in the plan if funding is expected to be reasonably available to pay for them;
- Identifies funding—federal, state, local, and private—that is reasonably anticipated to be available during the period 2025 to 2050;
- Identifies how the transportation system, as recommended herein, assures maintenance of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and meets the mobility needs of persons with disabilities; and
- Is updated every 5 years (or 4 years for areas that are not in attainment with does not meet the national primary or secondary ambient air quality standard for a NAAQS).
Federal and State Legislation
Title 23, United States Code (U.S.C.) 134 establishes the authority and responsibilities of the MPO. Further, this plan is guided by regulations set forth in 23 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) § 450.324 and 23 CFR 49 CFR § 613.100., which are described in the previous section on scope.
Federal transportation legislation passed by Congress since 1991 emphasizes:
- Efficient use and preservation of existing transportation infrastructure;
- Synergistic relationships between transportation modes; and
- Inclusion of private citizens and stakeholders in planning.
In addition, transportation planning within metropolitan areas is defined by three major pieces of federal legislation:
- Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, the current enactment of federal transportation legislation)
- The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
The FAST Act and MAP-21, the previous transportation legislation, incorporated performance goals, measures, and targets into the process of identifying necessary transportation improvements and selecting projects. The IIJA, signed into law in 2021, continued and expanded upon these provisions to promote an efficient and effective Federal surface transportation program. The long range plan must describe the performance measures and targets used in assessing system performance and progress in achieving the national and regional goals.
Clean Air Act Amendments
The IIJA is linked to the Clean Air Act Amendments, which recast transportation planning to ensure that it will help, not hinder, the region in meeting federal air-quality standards. They encourage reduced auto emissions and fewer trips by single-occupant vehicles, and they promotesthe use of alternative transportation modes, including transit, pedestrians and bicycles, as a viable part of the transportation system. Making federal funding dependent on a region’s ability to meet air-quality standards reinforces the link between transportation planning and federal air-quality standards.
Civil Rights Act
Requirements within the IIJA are similarly linked to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which states that “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.’’ The Act bars intentional discrimination, as well as disparate impact discrimination (i.e., a neutral policy or practice that has a disparate impact on protected groups).
Funding recipients must follow any applicable environmental justice (EJ) principles, which may include:
- Avoid, minimize, or mitigate disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including social and economic effects, on minority and low-income populations;
- Ensure the full and fair participation by all potentially-affected communities in the transportation decision-making process; and
- Prevent the denial of, reduction in, or significant delay in the receipt of benefits by minority and low-income populations.
State of Colorado Requirements
Senate Bill (SB) 21-260, Sustainability of the Transportation System, identified requirements for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions related to the transportation planning process for CDOT and MPOs.
In January 2021, the state published the Colorado Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap, and in December 2021, the Transportation Commission voted to approve a the GHG Transportation Planning Standard. This Standard sets GHG reduction levels for PPACG at different time periods and requires PPACG to model the existing transportation networks and future regionally significant capacity projects in its transportation planning documents.
Federal Planning Factors
The IIJA outlines 10 planning factors that must be addressed by the metropolitan transportation planning process. These are addressed throughout this LRTP and must be considered in future planning and programming of federal funds.
- Support the economic vitality of the metropolitan area, especially by enabling global competitiveness, productivity, and efficiency.
- Increase the safety of the transportation system for all motorized and non-motorized users.
- Increase the security of the transportation system for motorized and non-motorized users.
- Increase the accessibility and mobility of people and freight.
- Protect and enhance the environment, promote energy conservation, improve the quality of life, and promote consistency between transportation improvements and State and local planned growth and economic development patterns.
- Enhance the integration and connectivity of the transportation system, across and between modes, for people and freight.
- Promote efficient system management and operation.
- Emphasize the preservation of the existing transportation system.
- Improve the resiliency and reliability of the transportation system and reduce or mitigate stormwater impacts of surface transportation.
- Enhance travel and tourism.