00:00:00,000	everyone. OK? So I have 130. World. OK? This is the Bismarck man in Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy board, and it’s April 16th at 130 or in the Tom Baker room of the City County Building in Bismarck, North Dakota. And we will I guess we’ll call roll first and do then do the pledge or OK.

00:00:25,930	We should change. We should put that on the agenda, like separate with the pledge first. To. The flag of the United States of America. All right for which to stand. One nation under God. The individuals. And just as And I will call call meeting to order. Mayor Bland here. Mayor. He Cherry Schmidt here. Comm. Schwab. And Comm.

00:01:05,030	Zach Meyer. OK? All right. Thank you. First item on our agenda is review and approval of minutes from the march 19th meeting. I think a motion to approve the minutes as presented. And I would second Any discussion. There ain’t none. Uh, I’m just go all in favor. I oppose same sign.

00:01:33,130	All right. Next item is the 2024 to 2027 transportation improvement program Amendments and Steven, You’re going to lead us through this. Yes, Thank you chair and give me just one moment to share a screen with you. All. Right. So this month, the MP O. We processed two amendments to the 24 to 27 tip.

00:02:10,000	The amendments were advertised for the required 15 day public comment period. We did not receive any comments on them. We also held a public hearing yesterday attack and did not receive any comments. Uh, so the first Amendment is on your screen, and it’s also exhibit a in your packet.

00:02:30,730	It is a project for rectangular, rapid flashing beacon installation at four locations in Mandan recommended by the school Safety crossing Study. Uh, the cost estimates for this project have increased as noted on the amendment for which is why this project is being amended. This is a fairly routine type of increase as we get closer to construction of the project. The Second Amendment, which I will show.

00:02:57,000	Exhibit B. This one adds a new project to the tip. So. This is North Dakota Department of transportation. They are undertaking rail crossing signal improvements at the rail crossings on East Dale Drive and East Main Avenue in Bismarck.

00:03:20,630	Uh, so this project is estimated to cost 872,004 40 it is funded 100% federally, So Bismarck does not need to provide any match for this project. Um, are there any questions on either of these amendments? I will note that Tac did recommend approval as presented You may have questions. Yeah. I make a motion to approve. And I would second OK, any discussion Nunn will call roll. Mayor Berlet? Yes, Mayor. Helbert Chair.

00:03:51,230	Schmidt. Yes. Next Item four is arrived. 2050 forecast final report. And arrived. 2050 MTP update This. Is scott her OK, Scott. Go ahead. Yes. Thank you I will share my screen one moment. Can everybody see that? Yes. Wonderful. Thank you OK So yesterday. This. Uh, report.

00:04:26,670	Uh, document, uh, was also presented to tack and we’re taking it to policy board today. Um, we did get some comments. Um, relatively minor in nature that we are able to address. Um And. So we’re we’re here today in front of the policy board. Um, So. This is the socio economic forecasts. Uh, mainly the socio-economic forecasts that are critical.

00:04:52,030	To, the travel demand model, um, development. Which is a key leading piece that leads into the Metropolitan transportation plan meant the MTP And again. We’re looking out to 2050. And. I believe in the pack. There’s a the document that provided it has been provided to you as well. So.

00:05:12,270	I’m just gonna provide an overview of that document if you have any questions as I, go, please let me know. OK? Um, just a quick outline of the document. These are the items that are contained in the document. Um And I’ll. Just I’ll touch on these as I go through this this presentation. Uh, just an overview, though of the travel demand model process.

00:05:39,300	Sorry about the acronyms by the way, TDM is one of those that travel demand model overview. What is, what are the inputs to that? What? Is that? How does that work? Well, one of the critical inputs is land use in particular future land use so I mention this in a bit, but we spent a lot of time working with the different jurisdictions, all the

00:05:55,730	jurisdictions. To get their input on what their future land use is looking like Out not to just 2050. But we looked at an interim year 2035. Looking at commercial industrial development. So Jobs related to those type that type of development. Residential and also public institutional. Um, And, then that feeds right into transportation system.

00:06:21,470	Um and capacities, of course of the the streets and roads. But also freight needs and things as well. And, uh, needs related to residential Uh, of travel as well. That all of that gets fed into the travel demand model, and that helps us to understand.

00:06:39,800	What are the what are the the transportation needs? Looking out Long term That’s What. That model tries to predict This is a very common thing. Every NPO does this Um, so it looks to predict. Um again, 2035 and 2050 transportation needs helps us out with that. Our steering committee, uh, composed of the different jurisdictions, Uh, leaders in the staff.

00:07:05,470	Uh so planning, engineering stuff, different different jurisdictions. I’ve been instrumental to this process. We’ve met five times to talk about the travel demand model, So should economic forecasts information with them, and all those dates are shown here. Touch points are shown here. Um, but it’s it’s it’s quite a process.

00:07:27,130	Um and they’ve been instrumental, so I can’t say enough about their living very pro, very healthy on there, so We’ve also had a focus group, and this was more early on in the process. This was more last year. And what’s helpful about this Focus group is it helps? You know we we look at a lot of data to help inform our forecasts. But.

00:07:45,230	This can’t all be data. We also need a qualitative understanding. Um, of future growth potential. Um so we talked to economic development professionals. Uh, housing agencies, Social Service the schools. Um, higher education as well Real Estate development Indus industry So Uh, we do get input from these folks, and they were very helpful in understanding and helping us to calibrate.

00:08:09,330	Our projections. Um And a lot of the themes we’ve gotten for that are listed here, but Again. What are the drivers of growth? What are the challenges. Uh, to that? Um, but the opportunity as well on the flip side.

00:08:36,230	And, then the more data driven part is we look at, you know, um Local regional national trends for births. That’s Migration rates. Um, we look at the past trends as well from those from the last effort. Previous efforts that were done. You know it’s every five years is done. Look at households data.

00:08:59,070	There’s some data on here as in terms of persons for health, and if we look at those Expectations for For the future on that, and we also look at jobs as well. Broadband directions. Insurance. Then we put together a different growth scenarios. We in this case we were asked to do a low medium and high end If. This looks This sounds familiar. We did talk about this about a year ago. And.

00:09:19,270	We did take a scenario to this board. For, um What would be, uh, what would be the recommended or preferred? Growth scenario, but anyways, to get to that scenario again, you look at national and regional trends.

00:09:38,600	Woods and pool is a, uh, a data source that we purchase the data and it’s It’s a really good source of and we believe it’s down to the county level, but they look at county trends and it’s very helpful. So that helped to inform their projections as well. And. Then again. I I mentioned We Look at employment projections. We, we take the we primarily use the quarterly census of employment and wages for this information, which is very helpful.

00:10:00,400	This is very busy slide, but all the different colors. Those are different, Um, industries. That are included. So a lot of different industries here. And. Then again. We touched on this about a year ago. If you remember it’s been a while. But this shows the NP wide Uh, low growth, medium growth, high growth.

00:10:24,100	Uh, this board is selected to get to chose to go with the median growth 1.1% growth annually. We did also break out. Uh, we looked at these trends or these sorry these these forecasts per jurisdiction as well. So, some jurisdictions might be higher or lower than this. For example. For example. Linn’s is higher than this.

00:10:46,800	Um and, um, in some jurisdictions like Bismarck, I think is about the same or maybe lower, but this is essentially this is the entire MP O area, and so we’re what we move forward as far as the preferred. Is this medium growth or 1% annual growth. So. What. Does that look like, uh, geographically speaking. Um In terms of employment.

00:11:11,400	If you can see against a little small, we we break out the different areas and we look at we we chop the NPO area into Into transportation analysis zones. Um Which are essentially areas where traffic is essentially collected and and then feeds into the the transportation system.

00:11:33,130	There’s a simple way to describe that, but this is what it looks like for in terms of those transportation analysis zones. By employment growth, so the darker the green, the more employment growth is forecast. So again, the Northern State Street corridor, not a surprise. Further out on old Red Trail.

00:11:55,130	Yeah, not a surprise, And those are the types of areas and others that are protected for projected for some employment growth. You know commercial industrial development. And then, uh, on the residential side, some household growth again. Transportation analysis zones. Of course This looks much differently. So we’re looking at where All. The.

00:12:13,270	New subdivisions are expected to go in the future for that type of growth is expected to happen again. Over a trail to get to the West. Uh, is much darker, so the darker areas again much more growth. So North Mandan. Trail to the West. Uh, Northwest Bismarck, North East Bismarck. So in the darker places. Are. We Expecting more development again.

00:12:35,100	A lot of input from the work jurisdictions which make this possible. Um and then all this information has fed into this model and and important to note. Thing to note about this model. Uh, US consultants SRF and HDR. Um Do not own this model. We did we did not did not build this model.

00:12:58,230	Um, the state in in North Dakota, Um The uh N DS US Advanced Traffic Analysis Center. Uh, maintains the model. So. They’re the ones that we provided them information. And, Then. They update the model, So it’s been a lot of back and forth with them. They’re they’re a key partner.

00:13:15,830	Um And then and then, when they’ve developed that model and updated it, then we reviewed it as well. So. There’s a lot of quality control in this process. And. This map just depicts where a lot of that growth is happening on the transportation system again, the darker the color. The more traffic Social Um So again. A lot of iterations. We. We. Look at the network. We.

00:13:37,130	Wanna make sure the network the transportation network is accurate. There’s a lot of review as to that between The jurisdictions. Consultant and a Um, the script and how the model is run. The steps and then so there’s a lot of steps to this review, and then it’s all calibrated based on this review. This is done every five years.

00:14:00,630	So with that, Um, that’s just an overview of the report. Uh, again. I’m available for any questions if you have any specific questions about the report itself or any of this, I’m happy to Try and answer them. Any questions? Doesn’t look like it so Will be the motion or the Wishes of the policy board.

00:14:25,130	I’d make a motion to approve the final report. I would second Any discussion. Hearing. None will call roll. Mayor be Mayor. Hal Chair, Schmitz. Yes. Next item is the 2024 Unified planning work program. Excuse me. We have one other item to part three, which is a brief update on the MTP.

00:14:50,830	Oh, I am Sorry, that’s all right. It’s easy to miss. OK Go ahead. Then who’s ever presenting on that, scott, can you Are you still there? Yes, I hear, I’ll let you take over the update on the MTP and, um, let the board know about the public meeting upcoming. Yeah. So that’s that’s the big one is, we do have a public.

00:15:11,530	It’s more of a, um, pop up. Opportunity and what we mean by that is we’ll be at the, um, on the 29th of April. So it’s a Monday Um We will be, um at the Y MC A in Bismarck. Right there in the If.

00:15:30,270	You’re familiar with the Y in Bismarck right there in the the lobby Foyer area. From 1130 to 130. In the middle of the day. Uh, our last the last time we did this in the I believe it was the fall. Went very well. We got a lot of good input just from passers by. Frequenting. The Y MC A.

00:15:48,930	If you’re wondering when we’re gonna go to Manda and we’re gonna wait until the summer time and do that, Uh, Incoordination with an event in Mandan. Uh, that at that time, um Other than that. We are moving forward with the MTP the Metropolitan transportation planning process itself.

00:16:12,330	We unscheduled Um and we’re starting to look at, um Uh, future project needs at this point. So. If. There’s any questions and the mitch Walton transportation plan. I can try to help them. Answer Those Question. No Action I am associated with this, OK. That’s where I got tripped up. I’m sorry. All right. Thank you. Now we’ll move on.

00:16:42,330	The 2024 Unified planning work Program Contract Amendment, rachel I think you chair in policy board members? Um, since our last meeting in March, uh, the federal highway Administration has notified NP staff that they have approved our 2024 work program. We had requested changes to how we plan to spend our funding for the year.

00:17:07,100	And, Um, due to those changes being approved by the federal agency, the NPO staff in North Dakota Department of transportation are updating the contract, which underpins the document. So we have the document explaining how the money is planned to be spent. But, then a contract with ND DOT, um, that allows that funding to move into NPO offices for spending.

00:17:31,500	Uh, so exhibit E in your packet is an amendment to the 2024 UPWP Unified planning work program contract and, um The contract amount that will be reflected in the amendment is, um $888,000 Excuse me 888 857. That’s the federal portion and the local portion is $222,214. There will be no other changes to the contract.

00:18:06,170	Uh, this was presented to T yesterday and they recommended approval. I would make that motion. Second Any discussion. Here we call role Mayor Berland Mayor Helbert Yes. Chair. Schmitz? Yes. Item six safe routes to services complete three study and I believe Blue is presenting Yes. Uh, it’s me. Thanks, Uh so I over the past month.

00:18:37,700	We’ve been doing a lot of community listening, uh, as well as some surveys and an interactive web map. So, uh, we held five different listening sessions with Missouri Valley Coalition for Homeless Peoples Sacred Pipe Resource Center Youth Works and Ministry on the margins, Uh, between those five we had roughly around 70 in attendance and these were intended to be very, uh,

00:19:01,670	Internal conversations where people could feel comfortable being honest with us and letting us know what troubles they have getting from point A to point B, uh and with that it more than anything wraps up phase one. And. So. Uh, last Friday. We had a steering committee meeting and really started to present.

00:19:19,730	Some of the findings from that public input, And then I Basically push that up against all of the data that we’ve been collecting, uh, from GIS from a number of different sources, Uh and so I had a good steering committee where we just kind of went over everything. Make sure that everything was looking clear.

00:19:36,270	Uh, And now the next step is to move into Phase two, which is starting to identify, uh, those exact areas and then I start to actually look at our recommendations. And. What we’re thinking is going to be, uh, the best courses going forward. Um, so a really not a ton. Other than I.

00:19:55,000	Really, really good process so far. Are there any questions? Thank you, B. Thank you have a good day? You too. Next item 7 2023 2024. UPWP administrative modification, Rachel. Thank you chair and policy board members. Uh so I just spoke to you about the contract. Uh, For the UPWP.

00:20:29,200	Um which you approved an amendment for since the, uh UPWP document has been updated, Uh, staff is allowed to adjust funding within that, and we found that we had additional funds in a task we call 204. This is the task that allows funding for transportation. Uh, planning studies like safe routes to services. Uh, the Metropolitan Transportation plan.

00:20:50,600	Uh, we A little bit extra money in that task. And. So once I received approval of the, uh the requested changes from Fed Highway. I performed a modification to that document to move $10,000 into our travel and training line item, which is task one or two and this will allow a little bit extra funding for staff.

00:21:14,130	Um, should we have the opportunity to attend conferences later in the year? Ah! This modification was executed on March 19th and, um we include exhibit G in the packet to notify you of that adjustment. Thank you and is there any action required? There is not no Like Any questions? OK. Thank you do We have any other business? Just a question for Rachel.

00:21:40,970	How’s my Not SPO coming along. Have you heard anything? Not that it really affects us too much. I just but it’s good information. Yeah, that That’s A. That’s a really great question. Thanks for bringing that to our attention, Mayor. Um may not MP O is formed. I believe they are currently in the process of hiring an executive director.

00:22:02,170	Um however, they do have interim staff from their engineering department who are acting instead of, uh, in in the stead of an executive director, and, um, the the NPO directors from the other three NPS we meet once a month, Um, as a group of For to discuss questions and and thoughts that

00:22:23,770	we have, and we also have a weekly meeting together with our, uh, oversight at North Dakota Department of transportation to discuss, um all of our agencies and and how we’re communicating with DOT.

00:22:44,330	So there’s quite a lot of effort getting them online, and, um, they they’re doing a very good job getting their first MTP off the ground. Has. It had any negative effects towards this MP or Not that I’ve seen so far. No.

00:23:04,070	Um it’s in a way it can be a positive, um, particularly for staff and for my position, because when you’re in a position of training, and you’re getting questions posed to you, it helps to reinforce what you know and why you’re doing it. So. Um, we’re we’re really working hard as a state to build those good relationships, uh, amongst the organizations and, um as of right now, I don’t see any decrease in our overall federal funding. Um, you may recall Um from the past years.

00:23:24,330	Uh, the NPO, as well as many agencies have received an increase in our federal funding, and so far we have not seen a dip in those funds. So, the the coming online of my Not has not had any negative effects. Thank you. Welcome. Any other business. Not. We stand adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.