Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation Planning topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Appalachian Regional Planning Council presents adopted Regional Rural Transportation Plan and interactive map
Summary
The Appalachian Regional Planning Council briefed commissioners on the Regional Rural Transportation Plan (RRTP) for five counties, described the plan’s public-involvement and ranking process, and demonstrated an interactive map the council created to support project prioritization and grant applications.
Mary O’Brien, transportation planning manager for the Appalachian Regional Planning Council (ARPC), and Divina Lade, ARPC geospatial planning manager, presented the council’s Regional Rural Transportation Plan to the Jackson County commission and demonstrated an interactive web map designed to support local planning and grant applications.
Scope and process
O’Brien said the RRTP is a Florida Department of Transportation pilot project covering the five rural counties served by ARPC: Calhoun, Franklin, Jackson, Liberty and Gulf. ARPC formed a technical advisory committee (TAC) in June 2024 that included county commissioners and transportation experts; the TAC gathered projects through public meetings and recommended priorities. A neutral ranking committee scored projects and the TAC made regional adjustments before ARPC presented the plan to its board. O’Brien said the ARPC board adopted the RRTP on Jan. 30.
Plan components and benefits
O’Brien described four plan elements: foundation and process (including alignment with Florida Transportation Plan emphasis areas such as safety, connectivity, resilience and ACES — automated, connected, electric, shared-use vehicles); existing conditions and analysis; a projects list with narratives and regional rankings; and an implementation element that outlines funding sources and timelines. She said the plan helps communities prepare competitive grant applications by documenting community support and ranking.
Interactive map
Divina Lade demonstrated the RRTP web application, hosted on ARPC’s website. The map displays points, lines and polygons representing projects by category and county. Clickable features show project descriptions, category (for example, safety or resilience), county, and whether a project is short-term or long-range. Lade said ARPC can provide an embed for county staff to place the interactive map on the county website.
Commissioner questions and next steps
Commissioners asked whether ARPC staff visited project sites; O’Brien said the plan relied on local expertise and public involvement and did not physically visit every project site but did meet with individual communities and local staff and prioritized projects through the TAC. Commissioners also asked about alignment with ongoing county work, and O’Brien said the TAC will continue to meet and help jurisdictions prepare competitive applications and, when projects get funded, the list can be updated.
ARPC said the RRTP includes short-, medium- and long-term project horizons and that resilience scored projects that improve storm resilience, evacuation, and redundancy in the network. ARPC said it would continue TAC meetings and coordinate with Dewberry’s vulnerability assessment results to align transportation resilience priorities.
How Jackson County can use the plan
ARPC staff encouraged county staff to embed the map on the county site and said the county’s inclusion of project narratives and rankings can strengthen future grant applications. TAC meetings will continue; ARPC staff said they will help notify commissioners about funding opportunities and work with county staff to prepare competitive submissions.
