The Lee County MPO Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) is the 25-year vision for the community’s transportation needs and expectations. It considers all types of travel and identifies projects that will best serve drivers and their passengers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and people using public transportation. How and where freight movement occurs through and within the county also is part of the LRTP.
The strongest transportation plan for Lee County’s future depends on a clear understanding of how people and goods move around the county today and how these movements are expected to occur in the next 20 to 25 years. Every five years, planners and engineers have brought their expertise to the development of the long-range transportation plan, and ideas and opinions from community members participating in public meetings, workshops, and surveys have been essential to the creation of a successful plan. The prior plan was completed for 2045, and we are in the process of updating it to a 2050 version. Information on both can be found below.
What is the 2050 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP)?
The Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is a federally mandated and funded transportation policy-making Board made up of representatives from local government and transportation providers. The MPO guides how federal funding for transportation projects and programs is applied in Lee County, with one of its major activities being the management of the LRTP.
The Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) is a federally mandated plan that identifies a vision and addresses all transportation needs of a community over the next 20 years, with updates added every five years. The 2050 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) is the latest five-year update and a multimodal plan that makes recommendations for road, bus, bike, sidewalk, and freight-related projects with identified short-term and long-term strategies.
The 2050 LRTP includes two major components in its goal to meet the ever changing mobility needs of the county:
What’s the schedule?
The long-range planning process includes:
The 2050 LRTP update is a multi-year process that began in 2024 and will be completed and adopted on December 12, 2025, with the project’s schedule providing several opportunities for the community to get involved.
The MPO values and is committed to public participation in its planning processes. During this uncertain time, we made adjustments to the public involvement process to ensure safe opportunities for the community to get involved and comment during the LRTP.
Please check back frequently for information on upcoming workshops.
An online survey will be available soon.
Federal and state guidelines and requirements set the larger framework for the 2050 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) and ensure that the plans for all metropolitan areas are consistent in process and basic content. However, it is the residents within each metropolitan area and region who ultimately decide the future of their transportation system. Therefore, engaging the public through a variety of involvement activities during the entire LRTP development process is vital to accurately capture the needs and collective vision for the area and region.
An effective LRTP will also have a solid foundation – consisting of a framework of established local, comprehensive and other regional and short-term transportation plans. It is a unifying document that considers and builds upon the projects and initiatives of all local and regional transportation implementing agencies for a cohesive plan. The LRTP ultimately considers all other plans and initiatives within and around the region of Lee County, sets priorities, and applies fiscal constraints to develop the most accurate picture of an area and region’s future transportation system.
The 2050 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) was developed to be consistent with the requirements of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), which was signed into law on December 4, 2015. This legislation builds upon previous federal transportation acts, such as the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). The FAST Act is the first federal law passed in more than a decade that provides long-term funding for surface transportation planning and investment. As with previous transportation laws, the FAST Act includes a series of metropolitan planning factors that ensure that the work of the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is based on a continuous, cooperative, and comprehensive process.
Metropolitan planning regulations require that in formulating the long-range transportation plan, the MPO should provide for consideration of projects and strategies that consider the following thirteen (13) evaluation factors, as they relate to a minimum twenty (20) year forecast period:
In addition to addressing the federal planning factors, the 2050 LRTP goals and objectives are consistent with the FDOT’s 2015 Florida Transportation Plan (FTP) Policy Element and the goals and policies included in the local government comprehensive plans.
