SOUTHPORT – The Southport Board of Aldermen is now on the clock.
READ MORE: Could funds expand for transportation needs in Surf City, Topsail, Southport and more?
The board must decide by the end of the month if they want to join an organization that will handle future transportation projects and advocate for the town’s specific needs.
After the board’s development services committee met with members of the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Grand Strand Metropolitan Planning Organization, committee head Travis Henley reported his findings to the board at its Thursday meeting.
The WMPO covers urban transportation projects for New Hanover, eastern Brunswick and southern Pender counties. During its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, some of the projects it’s focusing on includes Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement, Military Cutoff/Eastwood Interchange, Independence Boulevard extension, a section of the Hampstead Bypass, and the interchange between Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and Kerr Avenue.
Municipalities have to opt into an MPO to participate, but it has to be mutually agreed upon by the organization.
WMPO asked Southport about its interest to join. The Southport BOA has until the end of July to respond.
By federal rules, the WMPO must re-evaluate its coverage boundaries at a minimum every 10 years, following the Census. When a regional area’s population exceeds 50,000, an MPO must be established. MPO boundaries reflect the central urban areas of a region, as well as where those areas are expected to expand in the next 10 to 20 years.
That is what makes Southport a viable option.
“We are in a unique situation where two MPOs are looking at us to see where they’re going to expand,” Henley said.
Southport wants to join an MPO because it would bring in more state and federal funding for road and transportation projects.
It’s currently a member of the Cape Fear Rural Transportation Planning Organization, housed within the Cape Fear Council of Governments, but RPOs don’t receive federal funding. The town of just over 4,300 has been a member since 2001, and the partnership has resulted in the widening on North Carolina Highway 211 and a pedestrian transportation project in the town.
“We’ve had quite a lot of success with the RPO over the years and we’re working with them right now on other projects,” Henley told the board.
An offer has already been made to Southport by GSATS. Based in Georgetown, South Carolina, the organization entered into an agreement in 2013 with North Carolina governmental agencies to create a bi-state MPO, in which Brunswick County joined.
GSATS head Mark Hoewoler said Southport’s growth captured by the 2020 Census made it worth expanding into and he expects the area to continue growing.
“It’s plainly obvious that, by the next time the Census rolls around, the growth will be contiguous all along the coast, from the state line all the way down to Southport,” he said. “Unless the Census changes its definition of population density, which they did the last time.”
Municipalities that already have joined GSATS are Ocean Isle, Shallotte, Holden Beach, Carolina Shores, Calabash, Varnamtown and Sunset Beach. Southport’s entry into GSATS depends on whether or not communities surrounding it, St. James, Oak Island and Boiling Springs, choose to join.
Should St. James or Oak Island choose not to join, then Southport is automatically out.
“We’ve heard St. James is interested, but we haven’t heard anything from Oak Island yet,” Henley said.
Hoewoeler said he has reached out to both localities.
“We have scheduled to meet with St. James on an informal basis, and we will be sending out letters to all the areas to see if they want a formal presentation,” he said.
If GSATS chooses to expand into Southport, the organization will likely open a new office in North Carolina. The board members have until the end of the year to give the MPO an answer.
North Carolina projects completed or begun by GSATS include the Carolina Bays Parkway extension, bike lane projects in Ocean Isle and Holden beaches, a new signal system along Wall and Main streets in Shallotte, and a study along the Holden Beach Causeway Corridor.
Henley told the board members to weigh the pros and cons of each option, for not every project under the MPOs will benefit Southport.
“A project up in Pender County is not going to do much good for us,” Henley said of WMPO. “Same thing if we’re in GSATS, the Carolina Bays Parkway is going to help Calabash, but it’s not going to help us.”
Unlike Brunswick County, which is a member of both WMPO and GSATS, as well as the Cape Fear RPO, Southport is a municipality, and therefore would lose its status within the Cape Fear RPO should it join either of the MPOs.
Alderman Rich Alt said he attended a couple of previous MPO meetings held by Wilmington and Grand Strand organizations, and he wasn’t truly impressed. He added that based on the Census, it would be years before Southport would benefit from membership in either organization.
He also said a workshop to gain more knowledge was needed.
“We’re seven or eight years away from having any additional sums of money from the two big ones, and we might be better off staying with the RPO that we’re in,” Alt said.
When asked if it were a benefit to stay within the Cape Fear RPO rather than join an MPO, Henley said among Southport, Oak Island or St. James, Southport is among the most coveted in the group.
“We would be one of the biggest fish — if not the biggest fish — in the pond, however,” he said.
Henley said Southport is a small town with an urban feel, which is why it is also a benefit to possibly remain in the RPO.
“Personally, there really aren’t a lot of places that have the urban feel like we do, so we’re in a better position for many of these projects,” he said.
[Ed. note: The article has been updated to reflect Rich Alt as the alderman to suggest a workshop was needed, not Thomas Lombardi, and that Southport would not remain a part of Cape Fear RPO if it joined an MPO. PCD regrets the error.]
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