Federal reviewers conditionally certify Cape Cod MPO, require MOU corrections and offer recommendations

Leah Sermon of the Federal Transit Administration Region 1 and Cassie Ostrander of Federal Highway Administration told the Cape Cod Metropolitan Planning Organization on Feb. 1 that their joint federal certification review has conditionally certified the MPO’s metropolitan transportation planning process.

The certification is conditional pending one corrective action tied to the MPO’s memorandum of understanding (MOU). Federal staff said the MOU does not clearly assign roles and responsibilities for developing financial plans and producing the annual listing of obligated projects, and that the current MOU’s signature/effectiveness language is internally inconsistent. FTA and FHWA set a deadline near the end of the federal fiscal year for the MPO to resolve those deficiencies.

“Based on our desk review, meetings with staff and public comments, we have conditionally certified the process,” Sermon said during her presentation. Cassie Ostrander, speaking for FHWA, said the teams had prepared a template action plan and expected the MPO to submit an action plan addressing the corrective action and the eight recommendations in mid‑March.

Federal reviewers listed two formal commendations: exceptional public outreach and strong attention to intercity transit coordination. They highlighted videos and a climate-resiliency podcast series as effective public‑education tools, and noted that CCRTA and the MPO have worked well to coordinate bus, ferry and other intercity links.

The review also produced eight recommendations, including greater clarity and documentation in the MPO’s organizational structure and MTP financial plan, clearer demonstration of TIP fiscal constraint, a more systematic congestion‑management methodology, a regional bike plan, documented consultation processes for environmental mitigation, and fuller use of expanded performance data for recurring reporting.

Federal staff said they will accept an MPO action plan that explains how the single corrective action will be addressed and how the MPO plans to respond to the recommendations.

The MPO did not vote on certification at the meeting; federal staff described next steps and requested the MPO return the action plan within the requested schedule.

The meeting’s discussion clarified a common question from the public: federal certification reviews the regional planning process (MTP/TIP-level outreach and planning), not the early (pre‑25%) design-stage public involvement that towns manage for individual projects. MPO and federal staff reiterated that cities and towns are responsible for early conceptual outreach, with MassDOT and federal partners exercising oversight when projects enter formal design and federal funding processes.