Participate

There were several opportunities for the public to participate in the plan development process. Below is a summary of public engagement activities:

Public Hearing and Draft Plan Comment Period

A public hearing was held on July 12, 2012 at the MnDOT Metro District office and simulcast at 15 MnDOT locations across the state. A public hearing was held on July 12, 2012.across the state. Written comments on the draft plan were accepted during the month of July 2012. Over 900 individuals, agencies, or groups commented on the plan. A summary of all comments received and responses to substantive comments is provided here. This document also includes a description of how plan content was changed based on comments.

Stakeholder Forum 2

A second set of stakeholder forums was held April 16th in St. Cloud, and April 17th in Shoreview. Over 50 people participated in person, and an addition 21 people participated online via AdobeConnect. Participating stakeholders included federal and state agencies, regional development commissions, counties, cities, advocacy groups, transportation providers, and private industry. The meeting began with a presentation on the current status of plan development. Participants were then divided into smaller groups where they discussed draft plan objectives and strategies and how they would see their organization utilizing the strategies. The comments recorded at the forums were considered in the final edits to the draft plan.

Reference materials provided to forum participants, including discussion questions, are provided below.

• Minnesota GO Vision
• Plan Outline
• Forum 2 Discussion Questions
• Draft Objectives and Strategies

Open Houses

Between Monday, January 30th, 2012 and Thursday, February 16th, 2012, MnDOT's Office of Statewide Multimodal Planning took elements of the Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan "on the road" to introduce the plan to the public and solicit feedback on draft content. Meetings were held in nine different cities across the state - Duluth, Crookston, Moorhead, St. Cloud, Minneapolis, St. Paul (Maplewood), Marshall, Mankato, and Rochester. Through these 9 meetings and one web-based meeting, the open houses drew over 200 attendees. Of those attendees, 32 percent were from Northern & Central Minnesota, 30 percent were from the Twin Cities metropolitan region, 31 percent were from Southern Minnesota, and 7 percent participated online.

Open houses were hosted from 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM on varying nights of the week. Each open house consisted of display boards with station areas based on plan context and draft objectives and strategies, as well as two opportunities to listen to a 15-minute presentation on the draft plan. A brief survey was provided, soliciting specific input on draft plan objectives and strategies. Attendees were able to ask questions of members of the Office of Statewide Multimodal Planning as well District staff and members of the Project Management Team.

Attendees and online survey participants filled out over 90 surveys and comment forms. From those surveys and forms, over 500 individual comments were received. All of the comments received were evaluated and considered in the update of the Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan. Thank you for your participation!

• Open House Summary

Stakeholder Forum 1

Over 90 transportation stakeholders participated in two forums held December 1, 2011 in Minneapolis and December 6, 2011 in St. Cloud. An additional 25 people took advantage of the opportunity to participate online. Participating stakeholders included federal agencies, tribal governments, state agencies, regional development commissions, counties, cities, advocacy groups, transportation providers, and private industry, among others.

The meeting began with an informational presentation on multimodal planning, the Minnesota GO! Visioning process, and the status of Minnesota's statewide multimodal transportation plan. Participants then transitioned into breakout groups where they commented on draft objective language and brainstormed "next steps" or strategies that fit under each draft objective for the plan. The forum finished with stakeholders prioritizing strategies by voting on the lists generated. A summary of the outcome of these discussions can be found below.

• Summary