A Critical Question with Misty Klann & Cole Grisham

FHWA Federal Lands

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A Critical Question with Misty Klann & Cole Grisham

Misty Klann Cole Grisham

Program Planning Specialist Transportation Systems Planner

Misty and Cole are both closely involved in the administration of the FHWA’s Transportation Planning in Tribal Communities Research Study, which seeks to align available planning analysis tools to Tribal community needs based on a range of contextual factors and quantify the benefits of planning analysis in the project selection and delivery processes. The Study seeks to ensure any findings optimize Tribal Transportation Program funding decision-making in Tribal communities.

What challenges is the Transportation Planning in Tribal Communities Research Study responding to, and how might the findings have a broader impact on transportation planning?

Misty Klann: The transportation bill authorizes the Tribal Transportation Program funds, and that Program serves 574 federally recognized Tribes. Most of that funding is distributed to the Tribes through a statutory formula, with 2% of their calculated shares going to transportation planning, which Tribal governments and their transportation staff use for transportation planning and also, to meet the Program’s planning requirements. ese requirements include having an updated long range transportation plan. Tribes must also have an updated Tribal transportation improvement program - known as TTIP - that identifies all the projects and activities that are planned for the next four years, and the FHWA works with Tribes to approve those TTIPs. Part of FHWA’s stewardship and oversight responsibilities of the TTP funds is having the approval authority of the TTIP. As a consequence, planning in a

Tribal context is that the TTIP becomes the focus, which is really a product of planning, and the checking of a regulation or a law requirement to utilize TTP funds, overshadows the value of planning. We cannot, as an agency, ignore our oversight responsibility; however, we also want to support our Tribal partners to grow and succeed. The objective for this study is to come away with practical planning tools to support Tribal transportation planning and beyond, and understand how the FHWA’s various departments can be effective partners to the Tribes. Where we can, we’ll focus on technical assistance and capacity building and then bring in our partners to help meet those gaps. Generally speaking, we need to work together to improve our infrastructure - and certainly the Tribes are no exception - so this study, I hope, opens doors to build and strengthen and maintain those relationships. The more we know, the better the chances for increased project collaboration and partnerships in project delivery, which is ultimately what we’re after. Cole Grisham: The anecdotal challenge that frames this study - which is in no way unique to Tribal transportation planning contexts - can be thought of in terms of how planners develop plans that do not end up sitting on a shelf and not getting used. Therefore, how do we develop plans that do get used? A good plan - in my opinion - rarely solves anything directly. What a good plan does is it allows a community to respond to opportunities and challenges that come up after the plan. Rather than reacting to them, the plan gives communities the foundation to respond from. In that way, we attempt to work backwards from what the key postplan decisions might be, then think about how the transportation plan can inform those decisions and what tools are needed. To that end, the big focus for us over the next few months is in-depth discussions with our research panel, which is composed of Tribal planning practitioners, and Tribes themselves. We want to collaborate to see what planning looks like in their community areas of support and compare what’s needed across the Tribes. In terms of how this research study will translate to other planning contexts, I imagine that many of the transportation challenges and opportunities we see in Tribal communities also exist and small city and rural planning contexts, especially. I suspect that the findings from this study will help inform those analogous contexts as well. We’re always happy to talk to anybody who’s interested in this study’s applications to connections to other work that’s going on in transportation planning. Our project website always has the latest updates on our research, the latest project deliverables, and upcoming engagement opportunities.

Expanded Content

podcast

Continue the conversation with Misty and Cole in our “Critical Conversations: The State of Transportation Planning in 2022” podcast series, available at planning.org/podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

➡ https://planning.org/podcast/

Photos courtesy of FHWA, Office of Federal Lands Highway

Misty Klann

Misty Klann is a Program Planning Specialist for the FHWA Federal Lands Highway Office of Tribal Transportation. She leads the office’s mission to support Tribes in strengthening their transportation planning capacity. Misty also works with internal and external partners to facilitate planning initiatives that may lead to establishing and building up relationships, which may ultimately, result in inter/multi-agency collaboration on project implementation. She is an enrolled member of the Navajo nation.

Cole Grisham

Cole Grisham is a Transportation Systems Planner with FHWA Western Federal Lands. Cole’s work focuses on long range transportation planning, particularly in the areas of regional and intergovernmental policy in the American Northwest. He’s a certified planner through the American Planning Association and holds a B.A. in Political Science and M.U.P. in Regional Planning from the University of Michigan. Cole is a member of the Assiniboine Tribe out of the Fort Peck reservation in Montana.