Transportation Priorities Community Conversations

The bill requires the department of transportation (CDOT) to assist each transportation planning region (TPR) of the state in holding at least one community conversation, a public meeting at which the regional commission and CDOT must present potential priorities previously developed by the regional commission and all identified funding options for the region and the state and at which any member of the public may testify and be consulted regarding his or her top priorities for transportation funding and his or her preferred means of raising the revenue needed to fund those priorities, in each TPR no later than October 1, 2016. To ensure maximum public participation for each community conversation, CDOT and the Colorado office of economic development, in close collaboration with each regional commission, must provide extensive public notice of each community conversation and must hold each community conversation at a time outside of regular business hours or most convenient to the local community and at a location that is convenient for as much of the population of the TPR as feasible and, if practicable, allow remote testimony.

Within each TPR, the representative of the TPR on the statewide transportation advisory committee selected by the regional commission must convene an open house meeting or panel of individuals, including members of the regional commission, with expertise in transportation and economic development to interact with and receive testimony from the public at any community conversation. The regional commission representative must lead the meeting or serve as the chair of the panel, and the meeting or panel must also include any member of the transportation commission and any regional transportation director for CDOT whose district or region includes any portion of the TPR and a representative of any regional economic development district or other community economic development organization that includes any portion of the TPR. The regional commission representative, assisted by CDOT staff, shall also ensure that each state legislator, county commissioner, and municipal mayor and council member whose district, county, or municipality includes any portion of the TPR receives an invitation to participate in any community conversation held in the TPR.

After all community conversations in a TPR are held, and no later than November 1, 2016, the representative who convened the community conversations, assisted by CDOT staff, must develop and submit to the executive director of CDOT a regional community conversation report that ranks both the top transportation priorities for the TPR and the preferred means of raising the revenue needed to fund those priorities. The executive director must compile the regional reports into a statewide report that ranks the top transportation priorities for the state and reflects the priorities and choices of each regional commission and regional community conversation and the preferred means of raising the revenue to fund those priorities. The executive director must provide a copy of the report to each regional commission and to the statewide transportation advisory committee and then present the report during CDOT's SMART Act presentation made before the commencement of the 2017 regular legislative session.

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)