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Broward MPO scoring changes cut small-city chances for Lighthouse Point sidewalk funding
Summary
City planner Britney Metzler told the commission that FDOT and Broward County MPO rule changes — including renaming CSLIP to REV and shifting scoring toward safety and economic vitality — make it harder for small cities to win grants; Lighthouse Point's sidewalk project ranked 12 of 14 in one cycle and rose to ninth in the next but now faces new dollar thresholds and biennial cycles.
City planner Britney Metzler outlined how recent changes at the federal, FDOT and Broward County MPO levels will affect how transportation projects are prioritized and funded, saying the changes reduce opportunities for smaller municipalities. She told the commission that the program formerly known as CSLIP is now called REV and that the MPO and FDOT scoring changes emphasize safety points on the high-injury network and require higher minimum funding requests.
"Only projects that end up on FDOT's work program get funded," Metzler said, explaining that FDOT can select which prioritized projects to include in its work program even if an MPO ranks them differently. Metzler said Lighthouse Point's sidewalk project ranked 12th of 14 in an earlier cycle and moved to ninth in the subsequent cycle, but the city will still struggle to score safety points because the high-injury network intercepts mostly US 1. She added that the minimum funding request is now $2,000,000 and the maximum is $5,000,000, with opportunities only every other year, which limits chances for small projects.
Commissioners pushed back on the implications for local planning and budgets, noting that preparing a competitive application can require engineering and design work that costs thousands of dollars. One commissioner said that while staff should remain engaged with MPO processes, the city must weigh whether to spend limited resources on applications with low odds of success. Metzler recommended continuing to place ready projects in the city's five-year CIP and to maintain district- and FDOT-level relationships so the city's projects are known to decision-makers.
