Public Participation Plan – 2025 Update

ARC is currently updating the agency’s Public Participation Plan (PPP) in accordance with the federal regulations governing interested parties, participation, and consultation activities of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (23 CFR 450.316). The PPP will reflect new federal laws, requirements and guidance concerning community engagement, and will significantly update and replace ARC’s 2019 Regional Transportation Community Engagement Plan.

ARC is committed to ensuring that stakeholders have a say about what participation should look like. To that end, we have developed a program of activities designed to help us listen to people to learn how they want to participate in the transportation planning process and other agency activities.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Expand the Regional Stakeholder Network:
  expanding ARC’s outreach efforts by identifying new stakeholders in all communities.
• Conduct Stakeholder Focus Groups:
  engaging stakeholders to gather direct feedback into the transportation planning and engagement process.
• Updating the MPO Participation Plan:
  Provide clear public notification of participation activities and ample review periods in MPO transportation planning processes per federal requirements.
• Developing a Community Engagement Strategy:
  Crafting approaches that ensure all community members can influence and benefit from regional planning efforts

Stakeholder Focus Groups

To better understand engagement needs of the diverse populations living in the 19-county transportation planning area a series of Stakeholder Focus Groups were organized. These focus groups are designed to serve as a collaborative hub of ideas to move us forward on the following objectives:

• Understand community wants and needs
• Expand community representation and seek out leaders who can bring a breadth of perspectives to the conversation
• Identify the communities preferred engagement practices

The experiences and knowledge shared will refine our outreach methods and will be a guiding light for ARC’s overarching Community Engagement Strategy.

MPO Participation Plan

Under the guidance of the Federal Highway (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administrations (FTA), the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) adheres to regulations that guide the public participation process for Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organizations (MPOs). These regulations are found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) under title 23 for highways and title 49 for transportation  (23 CFR Part 450.316 and 49 CFR Part 613.300).

The updated Participation Plan will outline ARC’s preferred community engagement strategies for transportation and provide information about Board and Committee participation opportunities. It will also outline formal procedures for participation activities associated with ARC’s core deliverables.

Community Engagement Strategy

In addition to developing the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) and Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), the Transportation Planning Department delivers a wide spectrum of specialized transportation planning initiatives that fit the diverse needs of a growing region.

Insights gained from the Stakeholder Focus Groups and the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Participation Planning process are helping to define tailored approaches that can be used to ensure stakeholder engagement efforts support a variety of planning efforts. We are crafting a dynamic toolkit that encapsulates best practices for engagement, a compendium of preferred participation tactics and accompanying metrics that bring the impact of outreach into focus.