Forward Pinellas revises project prioritization criteria to weight safety, readiness and economic opportunity more heavily

Forward Pinellas revised its multimodal project prioritization process and the board approved the new scoring allocation on Sept. 10, shifting more points to safety, economic opportunity and project readiness.

Staff explained the updates are intended to align the agency’s prioritization with current state and federal guidance and the board’s recent policy direction. The previous scoring split allocated lower shares to safety and economic factors; the proposed allocation raised safety from 17% to 20%, mobility from 11% to 12%, economic opportunity from 10% to 17%, resiliency from 7% to 9%, regional significance from 13% to 16%, and project readiness from 8% to 14%. Several older scoring line items tied to programs that no longer exist were removed or consolidated.

Chelsea Faber, who presented the item, said staff also developed a prioritization path for requests from local governments for planning and technical assistance so the MPO can triage and respond consistently when jurisdictions request mobility or analytical support.

Board members asked for clarification on how environmental and equity considerations were incorporated. Staff said resiliency now absorbs many prior environmental measures and noted that projects must already meet stormwater requirements; staff also tested past prioritized projects to check for unintended scoring advantages. Council Member Brandy Gabbard and others engaged staff on the tradeoffs and the rationale for the increased emphasis on economy and readiness.

Why it matters: the prioritization list guides federal programming and the MPO’s multimodal priority list; the new criteria change how projects will score when local governments submit projects for federal programming or MPO grants. The board adopted the revised prioritization process by motion, with one recorded no vote on the final approval.