# Hernando County, Florida Case Study

+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **1990 Census      | 52,056                   | ![](media/i          |
| Population**       |                          | mage1.jpeg){width="1 |
|                    |                          | .8118055555555554in" |
|                    |                          | height="2            |
|                    |                          | .591666666666667in"} |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **Central City**   | Brooksville, Florida     |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **Air Quality      | Attainment               |                      |
| Status (1990)**    |                          |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **Governor         | September 4, 1992        |                      |
| Designation Date** |                          |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **Voting Policy    | Hernando County          |                      |
| Board Members**    | Commissioners (5)\       |                      |
|                    | Brooksville City         |                      |
|                    | Councilman (1)           |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
|                    |                          |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
|                    |                          |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
|                    |                          |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **Non Voting       | Florida Dept. of         |                      |
| Policy Board       | Transportation District  |                      |
| Members**          | VII Secretary            |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| ### PL             | \$208,000 (PL funds      |                      |
|  and 5303 Funding  | only)                    |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **Initial Staff    | 3                        |                      |
| Size**             |                          |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **Initial Staff    | Hernando County offices  |                      |
| Location**         |                          |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **Modeling         | FDOT                     |                      |
| Responsibility**   |                          |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **GIS              | Contracted               |                      |
| Responsibility**   |                          |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **AQ Conformity    | N/A                      |                      |
| Responsibility**   |                          |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+
| **Contacts**       | Howard Glassman, MPOAC   |                      |
|                    |                          |                      |
|                    | \(850\) 414-4037         |                      |
|                    |                          |                      |
|                    | Dennis Dix, Hernando MPO |                      |
|                    |                          |                      |
|                    | \(352\) 754-4057         |                      |
|                    |                          |                      |
|                    | Bob Clifford, FDOT       |                      |
|                    |                          |                      |
|                    | \(813\) 975-6436         |                      |
+--------------------+--------------------------+----------------------+

The Hernando County MPO covers the entire 488-square mile area of
Hernando County, Florida. The county is located along the Gulf of Mexico
and is 20 miles north of the urban area of Tampa. The MPO is in
compliance with federal air quality standards. At the time of the 1990
Census the Spring Hill urbanized area was designated with a population
of 52,056. This population nearly doubled in 2000 to 102,193 in part due
to the inclusion of the city of Brooksville. The Bureau of the Census
also renamed the Spring Hill urbanized area as the Brooksville urbanized
area in 2000. This change was due to an expansion of the urbanized area
boundary east sufficient to envelop the urbanized population of
Brooksville. The Census Bureau typically identifies urbanized areas by
incorporated cities located within them. Although Spring Hill was the
population center of the original urbanized area boundary, it was not an
incorporated city. Once the incorporated city of Brooksville was
included within the boundary, the urbanized area name changed.

The policy board has six members:

-   All five Hernando County Commissioners

-   One Brooksville City Councilman

The non-voting member of the Hernando County MPO is the Florida DOT
District VII Secretary. The MPO also has four standing committees, the
members of which are appointed by the MPO Board:

-   Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) composed of technically qualified
    representatives from public or semi-public agencies.

-   Citizens Advisory Committee: membership is composed of 11 citizens.

-   Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC): membership is composed
    of 12 volunteers.

-   Transportation Disadvantaged Local Coordinating Board (LCB):
    membership is 14 members.

## Initial Steps to Formation

The 1990 Census resulted in the creation of 4 new MPOs in the state of
Florida bringing the total number to 25. The formation process for all
of the new MPOs began with Florida DOT (FDOT) sending letters of
notification to each of the affected county governments. In Florida, MPO
boundaries follow county boundaries even if the urbanized area covers a
smaller area. A state DOT official attributed this to the fact that
county governments are the strongest form of local government in
Florida.

After the initial contact, FDOT district offices supported counties as
they began to form their MPO policy boards and bylaws. The decentralized
nature of FDOT results in district offices well suited to give timely
direction to local officials as they comply with federal MPO guidelines.
The District VII Office in Tampa worked directly with Hernando County to
establish a timetable for MPO formation and set up meeting schedules.
According to the MPO coordinator, the keys issues that arose during the
formation of the Hernando County MPO were increased involvement for
local officials in the FDOT regional planning process and improved
methods by which to use transportation planning to address land use and
growth management issues in a high-growth region. The MPO coordinator
described the District VII staff during this process as essential to the
success of the MPO formation. The entire process took roughly 12 months
from the initial FDOT contact to the delivery of the proposed MPO bylaws
to the Florida Governor's office.

## Funding Issues / Administrative and Technical Support

Federal highway planning funds are distributed by FDOT to the state's 25
MPOs with a guaranteed minimum. Currently Florida MPOs receive no less
than \$250,000 in federal planning funds. Above this amount, the
distribution of planning funds is determined by a statewide formula
based on population. FTA planning funds are in addition to this amount
as well. Although the base amount was lower at the time the Hernando
County MPO was formed, this guaranteed minimum provided the MPO with the
assurance that they would be able to fund their day-to-day operations.

## 

Hernando County MPO staff is housed within the Hernando County offices,
and has been since the MPO's formation. The MPO initially contracted the
services of a former Florida MPO director who contributed knowledge and
insight to the staffing of an MPO. The initial staff in Hernando was a
coordinator, a planner, and one clerical position. All three employees
were considered Hernando County employees but focused primarily on MPO
duties. The staffing structure was modeled on those of other
non-transportation management area (TMA) MPOs in the state. Currently
there are only two county employees dedicated to MPO work (there is no
longer MPO-specific clerical support). According to one FDOT official,
the small size of the county's planning staff (four total employees
between MPO and county planning staffs) results in a separation between
county and MPO staff that is not as rigid in reality. There are frequent
situations where county staff will "cross over" and assist on an MPO
initiative, and vice versa. In addition to county staff, the MPO also
has a private consulting firm under contract that primarily assists with
technical aspects of the long-range transportation plan, overseeing
public involvement activities, and database analysis for the
state-mandated congestion management system. Travel demand forecasting
for Hernando is conducted primarily by FDOT on a model that encompasses
several west Florida MPOs. Although FDOT updates, enhances, and does
model runs for the travel demand model used by Hernando County MPO, the
consultant also assists the county with model-related data collection in
addition to recommendations for model use. GIS work is also contracted
out by the MPO.

## 

## Transit

In addition to developing transportation improvement programs (TIPs) and
work programs (UPWPs), the Hernando MPO has also maintained and updated
a transit development plan and transit operations plan. An FDOT official
described these long-range planning efforts as the principal reason for
the recent formation of a county-operated transit system schedule to
begin operation in October 2002. The MPO took the lead in surveying
county residents through the newspaper to determine the desire for
transit service and the types of service that should be provided. The
result is the new fixed route system comprised of three routes---a
Brooksville--Spring Hill connector, and two circulator routes (one for
each of the two cities). The MPO is the recipient of FTA capital funds
as well as state transit capital and operating funds. These funds are
transferred to Hernando County, which functions as the transit operator.

**Relationship Between Tampa Region MPOs**

Including Hernando there are 6 MPOs the 7-county region surrounding the
city of Tampa. In the 1980s, FDOT officials experienced difficulty in
getting Tampa area MPOs to undertake planning efforts in a coordinated
fashion. One FDOT official described the environment as extremely
parochial, and one in which the planning of some large-scale
transportation projects had been unnecessarily jeopardized. In an effort
to foster greater coordination among these MPOs, the state legislature
passed a law requiring the different bodies to coordinate their planning
efforts. This multi-MPO planning process is called the West Central
Florida MPO Chairs' Coordinating Committee (CCC).

When the Hernando County MPO was formed, it was not yet required to
participate in the CCC planning process. The MPO did, however,
participate voluntarily with the other MPOs between 1992 and 2000, at
which point the law was changed to require Hernando's participation.
This participation consists of the active coordination of planning for
regionally significant transportation facilities. The Hernando County
MPO operates on the same three-year long-range plan update schedule as
the other CCC MPOs. The update process is facilitated by the sharing of
one FDOT maintained travel demand model by all 6 MPOs in the region. CCC
MPOs also incorporate coordinated regional elements in their respective
UPWPs. These include a regional TIP, long-range plan, multi-use trail
element, congestion management report, and a coordination report. One
benefit of working closely with other area MPOs for the Hernando County
MPO has been the pooling of knowledge. According to the MPO coordinator,
working with Tampa on air quality conformity issues has been
particularly useful for the Hernando County MPO, which would otherwise
have no exposure to this work given its attainment status.

**Other Unique Florida Features**

In addition to the coordination between MPOs in the western part of the
state through CCC, all Florida MPOs are represented on the Florida MPO
Advisory Council (MPOAC). The council is used as a forum for discussing
common issues and as a means for petitioning the state government
(MPOAC's offices are located in the same Tallahassee building as FDOT
headquarters). According to both FDOT and MPO staff, it is an effective
mechanism for MPOs and FDOT, as well as FHWA and FTA, to provide
information and feedback to one another. MPOAC has two employees hired
to staff the Tallahassee office. The staff is funded by the MPOs through
the statewide PL distribution formula.

Florida also has a statewide congestion management system (CMS)
requirement for its MPOs. Instead of only TMAs analyzing congestion
impacts and possible alternatives, the smaller MPOs are also required to
perform this analysis. The statewide CMS requirement has been a way for
the state to ensure that smaller projects are analyzed for the impacts
on air quality and congestion. It also requires MPOs to address issues
along corridors in areas where capacity improvements may not be
necessary or feasible, and for those MPOs to look operationally at ways
to improve air quality or traffic flow. According to FDOT officials, the
CMS requirement has not been a burden to the smaller MPOs. The Hernando
efforts have been undertaken as a partnership between the county's
planning and engineering staffs to jointly develop methods to address
congestion problems. The FDOT official cited Hernando as one of the most
successful non-TMA MPOs in implementing the CMS.

Note: Three officials involved in the formation of the Hernando County
MPO were contacted for this study. These officials were the MPO
coordinator, and two FDOT officials---one from the District VII office
and another involved with the MPO Advisory Council.

## 

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## Hernando County MPO 

![](media/image2.png){width="5.861111111111111in"
height="4.986111111111111in"}

Source: Hernando County web site