TRANSPORTATION PLANNING HISTORY AND STATUS

In 1959 and 1960 a three-volume Regional Land Development Plan was prepared for Hickory, Newton and Conover. As a part of this study, a "sketch" thoroughfare plan was prepared for the City of Hickory. In September 1962, the City of Hickory and the North Carolina State Highway Commission (now North Carolina Department of Transportation) entered into a contract to develop a comprehensive thoroughfare plan for the Hickory Long View-Brookford area. This study resulted in a thoroughfare plan for the area entitled "Thoroughfare Plan, Hickory-Brookford-Long View, March 1, 1966." This plan served the Hickory area from 1966 to 1983 with only one revision approved by the City of Hickory on April 21, 1970.

In 1973, the municipalities of Hickory, Long View, Hildebran, Brookford and the NCDOT agreed to jointly undertake a new comprehensive study to determine the adequacy of the 1966 plan. The recommended thoroughfare plan was adopted by the local governments and the NCDOT in 1983. The study's report "Hickory-Long View-Hildebran-Brookford Thoroughfare Plan," was completed in December 1983.

By the end of the Hickory Long View-Hildebran-Brookford Thoroughfare Plan study period, a new thoroughfare plan study for the Hickory-Newton Conover Urban Area was being initiated. This was due as a result of the 1980 census in which the Hickory-Newton-Conover area was designated as an Urbanized Area. The planning area in this study was composed of the planning areas of three studies: The Hickory-Long View-Hildebran-Brookford study (1983), the Newton-Conover study (1982) and the Claremont study (1980). The recommended thoroughfare plan for the Hickory-Newton Conover Urban Area was adopted by the local governments in 1986 and by the NCDOT in 1987. The study's report entitled "Hickory-Newton-Conover Urban Area Thoroughfare Plan," was completed in 1989. This plan has been revised twice since 1987, in February 1989 and March 1992.

In 1992, another comprehensive study for the Hickory-Newton-Conover Urban Area was begun. Under the Federal mandate of the "Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA)" of 1991, all modes of transportation were included. The Hickory-Newton Conover MPO and the NCDOT adopted the recommended transportation plan in 1996. The study's report entitled "Hickory Newton-Conover Transportation Plan," was completed in 1997.

A technical update to the 1997 Hickory-Newton-Conover Transportation Plan was started in August 2000. The update is necessary to conform to the Federal Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA 21) which required each MPO to have an integrated, intermodal transportation plan with a 20 year minimum horizon. The MPO approved the transportation update in September 2001. The update's report, "Hickory-Newton Conover Transportation Plan - Technical Update # 1," was completed in October 2001.

In 2002 the Hickory-Newton Conover MPO Planning Boundary expanded significantly due to the growth of the Unifour Urban Area which was identified by the 2000 Census. The Unifour Urban Area expanded from a population of 69,914 to 187,808 and the MPO Planning Boundary increased its population from 127,322 to 257,572. The new urbanized area included significant portions of all four counties and all municipalities with the exception of Taylorsville, Maiden, Catawba, and Cedar Rock.

The new MPO planning area was required to include the new urbanized area and needed to include surrounding areas that were anticipated to be urbanized within the next 20 years. The MPO boards voted to invite Maiden, Catawba, and Cedar Rock to join the MPO. Even though they are outside the urbanized area, they are in an area with potential to urbanize in the next 20 years. Taylorsville was only municipality in the four counties that was not included in the planning boundary because it was not anticipated to reach the level needed for urbanization in the next 20 years.