(From the Lima-Allen County Regional Planning Commission)

The Lima-Allen County Regional Planning Commission (LACRPC) received news from the office of Governor Mike DeWine that the proposed planning committee—the West Central Ohio Rural Planning Organization (WORPO)—was approved to be officially designated as its own rural planning entity under the leadership of LACRPC.

Counties represented in this designation are Auglaize, Hancock, Hardin, Mercer, Van Wert, Putnam and Wyandot. WORPO is now one of seven Regional Transportation Planning Organizations (RTPO) in Ohio.

Colleen Barry, LACRPC RTPO Manager and Senior Planner, said, “This is an exciting time because we have been working with these counties on an official basis for two years to establish this designation. Being a part of the RTPO strengthens cooperation between agencies on a multi-jurisdictional level, which streamlines planning and creates uniformity in regional representation.”

Allen County is an urbanized area and is designated as a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and all of its MPO functions are performed at LACRPC, which has its office in downtown Lima. MPOs have access to funding at the state and federal levels to propose and execute necessary infrastructure projects. There are 17 MPOs in Ohio and are all in larger cities and more urban counties

While that is of benefit to Allen County, many other Ohio counties are deemed rural areas that have more limited resources. When smaller rural county governments work alone, their township, city and county officials have a difficult time executing transportation infrastructure needs and upgrades due to planning limitations and funding shortfalls. Because of this, much needed project dollars for roadways, sidewalks, signage, etc., are not allocated and projects must wait until local dollars can be raised.

This disadvantage in singularity sparked the idea that several counties surrounding Allen could form a committee–an alliance of sorts–that helps share ideas, plans and resources. The idea grew and, as the local MPO, 2 | 2 LACRPC began working in 2022 with officials in the seven named interested counties to establish an RTPO. These counties surrounding Allen are now collectively known as the West Central Ohio Rural Planning Organization, or WORPO.

Earning RTPO status and becoming the WORPO wasn’t simple. To be given status as an RTPO, a state’s governor has to make the official designation, and many things must happen before the application is sent to the governor. Such items include having a policy committee, having a parent organization that serves as the administrative and fiscal agent, providing planning staff, conducting public involvement, and completing a regional long-range transportation plan.

There are several new projects slated to begin in each of the WORPO’s counties in the very near future. Any person interested in the transportation planning projects of the WORPO is encouraged to follow the LACRPC Facebook and/or visit: www.lacrpc.com for more details.