by David Chapman
Staff Writer
The name might be changing for the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization but the mission will remain the same.
The independent regional transportation planning agency for Duval and parts of Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties began its rebranding effort last year and board members unanimously approved “North Florida Transportation Planning Organization” as its new name during Thursday’s monthly meeting.
The name was one of four presented to the board by Jeff Sheffield, First Coast MPO director of planning, and was followed by discussion on the different options.
The recognizability of the term North Florida vs. First Coast was debated, as well as the functionality of the name Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) as opposed to TRANSPlan, a melding of the organization’s focus of transportation and planning.
“TRANSPlan is flashy but our audience is elected officials,” said First Coast MPO Vice Chair and City Council Member Art Graham during the latter discussion. “TPO is more descriptive and we have precedent with the ‘North Florida’ name with the university (University of North Florida).”
The North Florida TPO name will be phased in and fully integrated within the next couple months, said Marci Larson, First Coast MPO public relations manager, and will include new graphics and Web site.
With no meeting in July, several key things were also discussed during the meeting.
During her report, Executive Director Denise Bunnewith spoke of her reaction to a recent Brookings Institution study that ranked Jacksonville No. 80 of 100 in cities that produce the smallest carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is the measure of impact human activities have on the environment from the amount of greenhouse gases produced, according to the Web site that calculates the emissions, www.carbonfootprint.com.
Bunnewith said that the footprint will increase with continued Port projects. Other cities with strong ports, like New York, offset their emissions with a strong system of widely used public transportation, she said.
Board member and St. Johns County Commissioner Tom Manuel said he was wary of the basis and factors on which the study was done, but regardless of any bias, Bunnewith said dealing with the area’s carbon footprint won’t be easy.
“This is going to be an ongoing challenge,” said Bunnewith. “It’s a long range goal that might change the way we grow.”
Another long term goal that was initially discussed Thursday was the creation of a regional transportation authority. Such an authority would combine several counties in Northeast Florida under one agency. In lean budget years, said one member, having a regional transportation base of operations instead of several smaller county agencies could help in State funding.
The group said it will explore the possibilities, beginning with a potential meeting next month that would further discuss logistics and examine other regional transportation agencies in Florida.
The idea of counties working together isn’t new, said Manuel, who cited the recent organized county efforts to the opposition of water withdrawals of the St. Johns River by areas of Central Florida.
“I think it could be very valuable,” said Manuel. “Our roads don’t stop at our borders.”
Other agenda items included a brief presentation on the Clean Cities Coalition, a program that encourages government/industry partnership to reduce petroleum consumption in transportation, and the organization’s list of priority projects for the 2013–14 fiscal year.
Both were discussed but will be revisited in August.
James Bennett, Florida Department of Transportation District 2 Planning Manager, gave a presentation on the recent changes to the department’s work program due to legislative changes.
The landscaping of projects and community outreach projects have been capped and cut respectively. There are no substantial outreach projects in the area, he said, but a 1.5 percent budget maximum on landscaping will mean that several projects will be pushed back into later fiscal years. Before the change, a minimum of 1.5 percent had to be spent on such projects.
Such a cap means that landscaping projects at SR 9A/JTB and I-10/I-295 will be pushed back from 2009–10 to 2010–11 and a project on SR 9B moved from 2012–13. Another eight have been removed from the program altogether.