Rural Consultation Practices
Transportation Planning in Rural Arizona
History
Arizona's regional planning structure was formalized by gubernatorial action in 1970. Six planning districts, known as Councils of Governments (COG's), were created by Executive Order from the boundaries of Arizona's original fourteen counties. Today, the six original COG's remain with the state's two urban COG's now serving as the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO's) for their respective planning areas. Over the last fifteen years, two small urban MPO's have been created within the boundaries of two rural COG's.
Currently the four rural COG's encompass 84% of the geographic area of the state, or 95,294 square miles. The four rural regions are known as:
- Northern Arizona Council of Governments - NACOG Northern Arizona Council of Governments - NACOG
- Western Arizona Council of Governments - WACOG
- Central Arizona Association of Governments - CAAG
- SouthEastern Arizona Governments Organization - SEAGO
The four regions began providing services, via contract, to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) in 1971. Early services involved mostly data collection type activities. Over time, a strong partnership has evolved between ADOT and the rural COG's that includes a variety of individual work tasks, plus comprehensive regional planning activities.
Work Tasks & Funding
Today, Arizona's four rural COG's conduct a number of tasks specifically identified in their contractual Overall Work Program (OWP) with ADOT. Activities in the OWP include regional intermodal planning, liaison and coordination, data collection, priority programming, and coordination of grant application programs at the regional level. The OWP for each COG is revised and updated annually to reflect changes in priorities or funding levels. Each COG is funded equally at approximately $80,000 through State Planning & Research (SPR) funds.
Listed below are specific tasks conducted by each of the rural COG's:
- Develop and maintain a regional Five Year Construction Program utilizing federal funds provided by ADOT, including the development of the regional prioritization and project selection process
- Coordinate the development of ADOT project priorities for the state highway system with ADOT's District Engineers
- Develop regional transportation plans - both policy and project specific plans - which address city, town and county roadways of regional significance
- Participate in the development of sub-regional and local transportation plans and transit planning projects
- Serve as a liaison between local governments and ADOT
- Collect data on roadway characteristics (traffic volumes, capital improvements)for Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) reporting and report annual local mileage statistics
- Coordinate the application and prioritization process for the Transportation Enhancement Program
- Review Section 5311 Rural Public Transit applications for consistency with the region's short range Transit Development Plan
- Coordinate the application and prioritization process for the Section 5310 Elderly & Persons with Disabilities Transportation Program
- Provide information and technical assistance to local governments
Future Roles
Rural COG's in Arizona continue to provide a regional forum for policy and decision making, coordination and delivery of programs and services, and the opportunity to speak as one voice on issues of regional concern. More recently, ADOT has looked to the rural COG's to expand their regional planning functions and to serve as the mechanism for updating Arizona's Long-range Transportation Plan. Anticipating this expanded role for the regions, the rural COG's are also pursuing opportunities to integrate long-range transportation planning with the Arizona Growing Smarter Commission's draft recommendations on regional planning.
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