Comment Still Sought on Regional Transportation Plan
The Calvert-St. Mary’s Metropolitan Planning Organization presents a draft of its Long Range Transportation Plan here. The public is encouraged to offer comment on the plan.
The committee met in January to formally present their draft. The comment period closes Feb. 22, 2016, fulfilling a 45-day open comment period triggered by the January presentation.
The organization’s region includes the St. Mary’s communities of California, Lexington Park, Callaway, Great Mills, St. Mary’s City, and the Patuxent River Naval Air Station and the Calvert communities of Chesapeake Ranch Estates, Lusby, Drum Point, and Solomons.
The organization was formed when the 2010 US Census recognized the population in the Lexington Park – California – Chesapeake Ranch Estates region surpassed 50,000 (58,000). The population triggered a federal classification of the region as an Urbanized Area, which requires creation of a metropolitan planning organization to coordinate transportation planning that uses federal funds.
The Long Range Transportation Plan is designed to prioritize transportation needs and serve as the source of planning transportation investments for the region for the next 25 years. The plan prioritizes projects and programs that can have short- and long-term effects on daily commutes, transportation options, and quality of life in the identified St. Mary’s and Calvert communities.
Some of the plan’s objectives include:
- To provide a transportation network that optimizes the efficient movement of people throughout the region
- To encourage local jurisdictions to control the location and intensity of land development so that highway traffic load will not exceed planned design capacities
- To improve access to and movement within the communities of the C-SMMPO region, including the road network and public transit system
- To manage access points along highways and encourage the use of service roads to provide additional route options.
Citizen input on the plan is essential to ensure transportation needs are accurately reflected within the MPO boundary and the region. The 45-day public comment period will end Feb. 22, 2016.
Citizens who have questions or comments should call Ashley Renshaw, Calvert-St. Mary’s MPO administrator, at 301-475-4200, ext. *1505 or email her.
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