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The Chattanooga/ Hamilton County/ North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization (CHCNGA TPO) is a federally‐designated Metropolitan Planning Organization. The TPO provides transportation planning services for Hamilton County and the northern portions of Dade, Walker, and Catoosa Counties. The TPO coordinates continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive transportation activities within the area along with the Tennessee and Georgia Departments of Transportation.
BOUNDARY HISTORY
The MPO was created in 1977 in compliance with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1973 and the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964. The complete boundary history needs some research. In spring 2012, the Census Bureau released the new Urbanized Area boundaries for 2010. The Urbanized Area is a Census‐designated urban area with 50,000 residents or more. According to federal legislation, the TPO must carry out the metropolitan transportation planning process for the Urbanized Area and the contiguous geographic areas likely to become urbanized within the next 20 years.
According to FHWA, the Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA) must contain the Census Bureau defined UZA, not the adjusted UZA. However, Federal law requires that the entire UZA be included within the MPA as well as the contiguous area expected to be urbanized in the next 20 years (23 CFR 450.312.). Therefore, it is most likely that the MPA would need to include the entire adjusted UZA. Using the adjusted UZA as the base, the TPO staff considered several factors for consideration in delineating the regional transportation plan boundary. For the MPA update, staff reviewed the following (although not all information is available for the entirety of the planning area):
2000 and 2010 Urbanized Boundary
Previous and current/proposed Adjusted Urbanized Boundary
Functional Classification of Streets
Land use patterns
Input from GDOT or TDOT regarding boundary expansion
Transportation projects identified in the TIP
Subdivision and zoning patterns
Local partners can provide the best input on growth and development patterns in their areas including possible sewer expansion or other infrastructure projects. Therefore, staff discussed growth drivers with jurisdictional partners. TPO staff also provided material for review by the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission which oversees land use planning in North Georgia. TPO staff proposed a MPA boundary that included an expansion of the boundary Catoosa County, both an expansion and contraction in Dade County and no change in Hamilton and Walker Counties. The TPO Executive Board approved the Chattanooga‐Hamilton County/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization Metropolitan Planning Area on June 18, 2013.