The Transportation Agency prepares a Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) every four years, in coordination with the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG), which prepares a Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) and Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) for the three-county Monterey Bay region. These plans outline the region's priorities for meeting future transportation and mobility needs, consistent with the policy goals and objectives adopted by the Board, within the constraints of a transportation revenue forecast over the 20-year planning horizon of the documents.
The RTP includes three main components:
- a Policy Element communicating goals and measurable objectives for improving the transportation system,
- a Financial Element that includes a forecast of revenues over the life of the plan, and
- an Action Element that includes a list of projects to be funded within the capacity of the funding forecast, which meet the goals and objectives identified in the document.
The RTP does not approve any particular project, but does review the environmental impacts of all proposed projects on a "program level." Attachment 1 is the Executive Summary from the draft 2022 RTP. The full draft RTP is available as a web attachment.
Since the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 375, state law requires that Regional Transportation Plans be consistent with local Sustainable Communities Strategies (SCS). Collaborating with AMBAG on a coordinated RTP/MTP/SCS update allows for one Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to be prepared for all three documents.
To align the review process for these coordinated documents, the Transportation Agency Board authorized the release of the Draft Monterey County Regional Transportation Plan in December for a public review period closing January 31, 2022, concurrent with AMBAG’s review period.
As part of this process, staff scheduled public hearing on the draft plan at the January 26, 2022 Board of Directors meeting.
The document is posted to the Agency website and was distributed to member jurisdictions, state and federal resource agencies, citizen advisory committees and other public stakeholders.
Any public testimony or written comments received by the Agency and AMBAG on the draft plan for Monterey County will be addressed in the final document, which staff expects to present to the Board for adoption no later than June 22, 2022. AMBAG adoption of the final Metropolitan Transportation Plan, Sustainable Communities Strategy and the Draft EIR is also scheduled for June 2022.
Attachment 2 is an AMBAG staff report with more information on the Draft 2045 MTP/SCS, and Attachment 3 is a flyer with dates for public outreach. Transportation Agency and AMBAG staff will present the draft documents and receive comments at the January Technical Advisory Committee meeting.