SPRINGDALE -- Regional planners will be meeting and holding required public hearings online for the foreseeable future, the organization's board decided Wednesday.
Meeting via Zoom for the first time since January, the board voted to amend its public participation plan in order to hold meetings online due to the covid-19 pandemic and social distancing guidelines. Public notification procedures will be followed as closely as possible and are available on the organization's website.
Zoom is an online video-conferencing application.
Federal Transportation Administration officials last week told regional planning organizations to adopt an emergency modification to their plan, according to Tim Conklin, assistant director.
Conklin said the change is narrowly drawn and follows the federal Department of Health and Human Services declaration about a public health emergency. The change will remain in effect until regional planning receives further guidance from the Federal Highway Administration or Federal Transit Administration.
"This is a document that we adopt as an organization to carry out our transportation planning," Conklin said. "Obviously, in-person meetings and public input sessions have changed."
The board also approved the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission's 2021 Unified Development Work Program, which sets out activities the organization will undertake during the fiscal year beginning July 1.
The Unified Development plan is presented to transportation departments in both Arkansas and Missouri.
Regional planning's boundaries include all of Benton and Washington counties and a small portion of McDonald County up to Pineville, Mo.
The commission's major tasks are administration and support of programs and money, general development, comprehensive planning, short and long-range transportation planning and the region's Transportation Improvement Program.
The goals are to create a regional transportation network that is safe, reliable and reduces congestion, improves ease of movement and supports economic development.
The biggest task for the first half of the next fiscal year is completion of a 2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan update because it has to be updated in the first quarter of 2021. Any projects requiring federal money must be part of the plan.
NW News on 05/28/2020