The San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization, which plans transportation for the region, will expand its boundaries to possibly encompass the cities of Boerne, New Braunfels and Seguin, among others.

“We’re way behind on this,” said SA-BCMPO Director Sid Martinez. “We are not meeting the definitions of federal rules today and we should have done this after the last census information came out in 2002.”

Martinez said that the MPO is not complying with federal definitions that say an MPO should plan for “the urbanized area and the contiguous geographic area likely to become urbanized” in the next 20 years. “Urbanized” is defined as an area with a population density of 500 people per square mile.

Once a city reaches a population of 50,000, it can choose to form its own MPO; New Braunfels, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimation, had 49,969 residents in 2006.

“New Braunfels could have its own MPO in 2010,” Martinez said, “but bringing them into our MPO would make them eligible for more funding.”

Martinez said that first, the MPO board must define its boundaries. Then, the changes must be approved by county commissioners and city leadership, then the Texas governor and the Federal Highway Administration.

“We did have some conversations about this in the 1990s with Commissioners Court,” said Texas Department of Transportation Engineer Clay Smith, also an MPO board member. “They elected to stay out and to continue to plan with the state. But things have changed, and it’s no longer really a choice.”

Decisions are far from being made, Martinez said, but discussions about where to expand the MPO boundary need to take place.

“We really haven’t given this much thought,” said Chris Turk, director of planning and community development for Boerne. “We will have to weigh the options and get some more information about what the best option is to get our roadwork done.”

Expanding the boundary will mean that the SA-BCMPO must plan for all counties included in both long-range and short-term plans. Currently, cities that do not belong to an MPO work directly with TxDOT for road improvements, but that option is not available to cities located adjacent to an MPO boundary.

“It’s like an amoeba,” said MPO spokesman Scott Ericksen. “Either they’re going to have to become their own or will have to come into ours by 2010. Now we’re just opening the initial dialogue and getting some guidance.”

The MPO would not get any additional funding by expanding to other counties.

Ericksen says that rural areas that are outside of an MPO must currently deal directly with TxDOT to acquire rural funding. Kendall County’s inclusion would make it eligible for additional rural funding to which the MPO has access. The issue has not been discussed with local governments because the MPO board has not yet approved such discussion.

“The MPO provides regional transportation planning for its assigned area and distributes about $200 million annually for transportation projects in their area,” says Kendall County Engineer Terry Anderson. “Their Transportation Policy Board has 19 members with four from San Antonio and six from Bexar County. There are no members from other counties.” He says that Bexar County therefore has more say in how that money is spent.