§279E-2  Establishment of Metropolitan
Planning Organization.  There is established in each county with a
population in excess of 200,000 a metropolitan planning organization called the
Metropolitan Planning Organization, abbreviated by the letters MPO.  The MPO
shall be an advisory body responsible for carrying out a continuing,
comprehensive, transportation planning process in cooperation with the State
and the appropriate county in order to advise appropriate state, county, and
federal agencies regarding that process.



The MPO shall develop through continuing
cooperative input from state and county planning agencies, the transportation
plans and planning processes or policies enumerated herein and shall submit
those plans and planning processes together with any other advice on
transportation planning as may be required to the state legislature, the state
department of transportation, the state department of business, economic
development, and tourism, the office of planning, the legislative body of the appropriate
county, the transportation and planning agencies of the appropriate county, and
appropriate federal agencies.



The MPO shall further assist and advise the
state legislature, the state depart­ment of transportation, the state
department of business, economic development, and tourism, the office of planning,
the legislative body of the appropriate county and the transportation and
planning agencies of the appropriate county in carrying out comprehensive
metropolitan transportation planning embracing airports, bikeways, harbors,
highways, transit and waterways within the appropriate county.  The MPO shall
assist and advise such appropriate agencies in evaluating studies and programs
related to transportation planning.  The MPO shall recognize that all of its
activities shall be primarily advisory, and that the policymaking powers shall
remain with the legislature or the legislative body of the appropriate county,
whichever the case may be.  The MPO is to develop and recommend policies,
priorities, and techniques relating to transportation planning, and shall be
directly accountable to the legislature and the legislative body of the county
as an advisory body.



For administrative purposes only, each MPO
shall be assigned in part to the department of transportation of the State of Hawaii and in part to the county.



Nothing in this law is intended to change the
basic jurisdiction for planning responsibilities already given to the state and
county agencies in existing statutes and ordinances.  Those state and county
agencies are to cooperate with the MPO by providing input from their present
planning processes and the MPO will advise those agencies by way of submitting
to them the coordinated plan which it develops. [L 1975, c 180, §2; am L 1987,
c 336, §6; am L 1990, c 293, §8; am L 1996, c 299, §3]