Transportation Policy Coordinating Committee Meeting - March 27, 2026
Transportation Policy Coordinating Committee Meeting - March 27, 2026
The Transportation Policy Coordinating Committee (TPCC) met on March 27, 2026, at 8:00 PM MT. The meeting included election of a new chair and vice chair, an informational overview of the Gallatin Valley MPO and regional transportation planning process, and adoption of the long-range transportation plan (LRTP) vision, goals, and objectives with amendments. All seven members were present.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made on non-agenda items. No public comments were made during the action item on the LRTP vision, goals, and objectives.
Discussion Items
- Chair and Vice Chair Election: Mayor Morrison was nominated and elected chair (6 votes in favor, one member temporarily disconnected during the vote). City Manager Neil Cardwell was then nominated and elected vice chair (6 votes in favor, one member absent during the vote).
- Informational Presentation: Jeff Butts, MPO Manager, provided an overview of the MPO, its planning factors (economic vitality, safety, etc.), boundary (Bozeman, Belgrade, Gallatin County to Fort Corns), governance structure (TAC and TPCC), required planning products (UPWP, PPP, LRTP, TIP), and the LRTP timeline. The presentation was for information only; no action taken.
- Adoption of LRTP Vision, Goals, and Objectives: Jeff Butts presented the revised draft incorporating prior feedback from TPCC and TAC. Key themes from public engagement included reliability, safety, walking/bicycling, transit expansion, and state of good repair. The draft included six goals: (1) safe travel, (2) well-maintained system, (3) mobility choices, (4) quality of life, (5) transportation-land use coordination, and (6) resilience. Discussion focused on specific language in Goal 1 (speed limits), Goal 3 (bicycle facilities and consolidation of objectives), Goal 5 (transit-oriented development), and Goal 6 (resilience). Amendments were proposed and voted on sequentially.
Key Outcomes
- Elected Chair: Mayor Morrison (6-0-1 vote).
- Elected Vice Chair: City Manager Neil Cardwell (6-0-1 vote).
- Adopted LRTP Vision, Goals, and Objectives (7-0 vote) with the following amendments:
- Added a new strategy under Goal 3 (Mobility Choices): "Establish a regional bicycle network connecting key destinations for all ages and abilities."
- Amended Goal 1, Objective 7: Changed from "strengthen partnerships to support consistent speed limits and Vision Zero goals" to "strengthen partnerships to support Vision Zero goals" (removing reference to consistent speed limits).
- Amended Goal 6 (Resilience), Strategy 1: Added the word "resilience" to read "improve the adaptability, flexibility, and resilience of the regional transportation network."
- The committee discussed but did not adopt a proposal to consolidate objectives 3 and 5 and objectives 2 and 6 under Goal 3; that proposal was withdrawn.
- The LRTP must be adopted by December 26, 2026, with final adoption expected in October 2026 after public review.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, great everybody. Um, thank you and welcome to the March Transportation Policy Coordinating Committee. Um, in our January meeting, uh, the committee decided that staff will chair uh this uh meeting until we get a new chair, and so I'll be stepping in to help guide everybody along. We have new members today, and so um that is exciting. Welcome to all of the new members that we have. I will pull up our agenda and uh we can get going through it. And so uh call this meeting to order. And uh Marcy, can you please take a roll call? Mayor Morrison. Commissioner Bodie. Neil Cardwell. Here Commissioner Brown here. Do you know Leva? Here Mark Eggie. Present, and I do see Commissioner Bodie in the participant list of the panelist list and Jim Hanson. Here then we have five out of seven. Uh great Marcy, did you hear Mark Eggie's comment? Uh Commissioner Bodie is present. Yep, I saw that, so we have five out of seven. Okay, great. Thank you, Marcy. Just wanted to make sure on that. Um and so now it looks like Mayor Morrison is joined as well. Sorry, sorry, I'm a few minutes late. Mayor Morrison and Commissioner Bodie, we have seven out of seven. Great. Thank you, Marcy. Appreciate that. Next, we will move down to public comments. This is a time um for any item that is not on the agenda. Um for a matter that's falling within the scope of the MPO. Uh, there's also going to be time within conjunction of each item if you want members of the public would like to speak specifically about that individual item. And so now I will open it up for public comment. Marcy, are we seeing any requests for public comment? I'm showing no requests for public comment. Okay, great. Um, one more call. Any any requests for public comment? Still showing no requests. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay, and so now moving on to the agenda. The first item on the agenda is nomination or selection of a chair. The chair um runs uh the meetings and they keep everything in uh in order as we are going through the meeting. They may also sort of act as a representative of TPCC between meetings. Staff can reach out to them. So we are, and then the vice chair uh serves as the chair in the chair's absence. And so in this agenda item, we are asking for a chair who will take over running the meeting uh after they are nominated, and a vice chair to serve in the absence of the chair. Do we have any nominations for chair and vice chair? Mr.
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