By Adam Curtis
The Sierra Vista Herald
The Sierra Vista area’s population has hit a tipping point, triggering a federal requirement to dramatically change how its transportation planning and funding is handled.
Because the population of Sierra Vista’s urban area, which is greater than its city limits, exceeded 50,000 in the 2010 census, it is among three Arizona communities tasked with establishing the boundaries and governing body of a new Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) by March 27. This MPO can be as small as the urban area itself or as large as Cochise County’s borders and each government it includes will have at least one seat on its board.
The bad news, for Sierra Vista anyway, is that its share of money for doing street projects and running its transit program will decrease as a result, although this funding crunch will not occur until July 2015. This has given the city sufficient cause to explore pursuing a federal exemption.
Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) staff members briefed members of the Sierra Vista City Council and Cochise County Board of Supervisors on the change at a joint work session on Thursday. City Council Members Tom Reardon and Gwen Calhoun were absent, in addition to supervisor Pat Call.
Mark Kies, director of planning and programming for ADOT’s multimodal planning division, explained that Sierra Vista will no longer use the SouthEastern Arizona Governments Organization (SEAGO) as its regional planning agency for transportation, which also means that share of federal money will go through the new MPO and not SEAGO.
There is also very little choice in the matter.
