Council approves Ports to Plains membership after presentations on I-27 corridor funding and safety

The Midland City Council voted 5-2 on April 8 to authorize the City Manager to join the Ports to Plains Alliance and approve an $80,100 membership payment. Lindsay Adams, Strategic Partnerships Officer, presented the item and said membership would give the city a seat on the alliance's board, access to advocacy and planning resources and participation in corridor-level events.

Lauren Gardu—o, president and CEO of the Ports to Plains Alliance, told council the alliance helped secure a federal congressional designation for a future interstate known as I-27 and worked at state and national levels to secure planning and construction funding. Gardu—o said the alliance's prior studies supported TxDOT planning, contributed to a $3 billion-plus allocation in TxDOT's 10-year program for portions of the corridor and helped attract discretionary federal requests for planning and preliminary engineering.

Council members and staff discussed the alliance's role versus TxDOT's legislatively created I-27 advisory committee. Adams said the advisory committee is a TxDOT committee with legislatively appointed members on which the mayor currently sits; she described Ports to Plains as an independent alliance that advocates at state and federal levels and drives corridor-level funding requests. Gardu—o described an alliance strategy to combine political support across several corridor groups (I-27, I-14, I-69) in Washington to pursue discretionary federal funding and an anticipated federal highway reauthorization.

Council members asked about funding streams and the relationship between local MPO funding categories and federal discretionary "above-the-line" funding the alliance seeks. Gardu—o said Ports to Plains pursues both targeted community funding requests (smaller planning grants) and larger national advocacy for a future-interstate funding program; he said TxDOT currently has several hundred million dollars and several billion in design and construction line items on the corridor, and that additional federal discretionary funding would supplement state and local resources.

Supporters argued membership placed Midland at the regional table for future planning and safety improvements on a corridor that crosses the Permian Basin. Dissenting council members were concerned about cost and priorities; the membership vote passed 5-2.

Ending: The council approved the membership and asked staff to coordinate next steps, which council and staff said will include advancing planning efforts and coordinating with TxDOT and the I-27 advisory committee on right-of-way and funding strategies.