Thurston Regional Planning Council reviews policies for 2022 Federal Transportation Grant Funding Call

The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC) is set to identify actions and opportunities to improve their grant selection process during their remote meeting on Thursday, December 15.

TRPC is authorized to allocate discretionary federal grant funding to transportation projects, programs, and services that benefit local communities.

This process, known as a Call for Projects, is part of TRPC's ongoing, coordinated, and comprehensive approach to regional transportation planning.

According to its  site, they will reflect on the Call for Projects Process and share feedback to identify actionable recommendations to improve the process for future funding cycles.

“We're having a big discussion with our council about transportation funding and it’s the demands are getting heavier and heavier on us, and the funds aren't changing, and things like this make it even tougher,” said Interim Public Transportation Director Sophie Stimson said.

Lacey Transportation Manager Martin Hoppe added that the application forms must be revised.

“One of the comments that we would have in the future, the application forms, we find that maybe we can have more criteria,” said Hoppe.

Hoppe further suggested that in the application, they can add criteria to score projects based on how good of an active transportation project it is, how good of a safety project it is, and how much resiliency it benefits the system.