Published: August 30, 2009 12:42 am      

Census makes or breaks DATS

DANVILLE — If 2010 Census numbers come in lower than 2000 Census numbers, the Danville area could again cease to be an urbanized area.

“I’m a little bit anxious what the numbers are,” Danville Area Transportation Study Director Adam Aull said. “The population estimates are not as high as I would have hoped they would be at this time.”

Estimates show a stagnant/slightly declining growth rate in the area.

Without an urbanized designation, federal funding for the DATS staff and planning would halt.

“It would cease the entire program — the committees, staff, dissolve the cooperation among the agencies. That whole structure would cease based on that,” Aull said.

That’s why Aull and other local officials already are stressing how vital it is to city funding that every person in the area return completed census forms next spring and be counted in the 2010 Census. The city was renamed an urbanized area after the 2000 Census and new guidelines.

The designation comes from the U.S. Census Bureau and is determined by a mathematical formula.

Generally, the Census Bureau has a density standard and looks at areas that have so many persons per square mile.

Danville lost its urbanized area ranking in the 1990s due to population losses determined after the 1990 census. The first Metropolitan Planning Organization in 1980 covered Danville through Westville, Aull said. An urbanized area is defined as having a population of more than 50,000.

By picking up Catlin and stretching south along Route 1 to Georgetown, Danville’s urbanized area population now totals about 53,000.

City officials were surprised about the return designation in 2002, after the 2000 Census, when surrounding villages all lost population. Danville’s population was boosted by the prison being annexed into the city.

The urbanized area includes Danville, Tilton, Catlin, Westville and Georgetown.

The designation requires that a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) be put in place to coordinate and oversee planning efforts throughout the area.

An MPO is a transportation policy-making organization made up of local government and transportation representatives. The Federal Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1973 required the formation of an MPO for any urbanized area with a popula-tion greater than 50,000.

MPOs were created to ensure that transportation project expenditures were based on a comprehensive, cooperative and continuing planning process. Federal funding for transportation projects and programs are channeled through this planning process.

As a result, the Danville Area Transportation Study MPO was established to plan for transportation and ensure that ad-vances are being made to meet community needs and to accomplish the vision shared by citizens and leaders.

The MPO must complete a 25-year Long Range Transportation Plan, a four-year transportation improvement plan and an annual unified planning work program. These three documents pertain to the MPO and guide the planning and construction/transit improvements throughout the area.

“The public is always invited and encouraged to participate during all of our activities to ensure that the MPO is working toward the needs and desires of the community,” Aull said.

He said without the designation of the MPO, about $180,000 per year would not be given to the DATS program. The remainder of the budget — annually about $253,000, which includes two full-time employees and an intern — is local match.

The federal dollars are spent on planning activities and projects such as: the Fairchild Subway study, Catlin alternative corridor feasibility study, Route 1 Access Enhancement, Danville Mass Transit transfer zone study and Westgate Land Use Alternative Study. The city is the financial agent that allows DATS to operate.

Not having an urbanized designation also would mean all of the federal transportation planning requirements would cease. But, if census numbers remain about the same, and keep the area above 50,000 population, the MPO will continue as it has been and could expand to some smaller unincorporated areas, such as Batestown, as local officials see fit.

In 2003, DATS included the Eastgate and Westgate industrial parks in the urbanized area for study purposes, Aull said.

Aull said DATS is one of the smallest MPOs in the nation, but there are many others of similar size.

He said DeKalb was designated in 2002 along with Danville and at that time was just a few thousand people larger than DATS.

Aull said if any of the DATS towns fall below their density per square mile threshold, then they could be eliminated from the MPO area. Urban Areas, like Hoopeston, are those areas that have urban characteristics, but are not Urbanized Areas, he said. Aull added that Bismarck is currently too distant to be included in the urbanized area. There is not enough population density between the two towns, and the distance is over the 3-mile requirement, he said.

There also isn’t a straight connecting road between Catlin and Oakwood or Tilton and Oakwood to include the Oakwood area, he said.

The census numbers are not only important to the city and the MPO, but also for Community Development Block Grant funding for home rehabilitation and economic development funding, road dollars and other funding.

“The most important thing (Commercial-News) readers can do is fill out those (census) forms,” Aull said.