A Regional Approach to Planning

MATS Metropolitan Planning Area facilitates a more regional approach to transportation planning by including everyone's perspective, working with stakeholders and communities.

Background on Urban Areas

The Census Bureau uses the term Urban Area (UA) to refer to the Urbanized Areas (UZA) designated by the Census Bureau for the decennial Census.
Also, Federal transportation legislation allows state and local officials to adjust the Census boundaries outward, as long as they encompass the entire UZA. This results in something called an ACUB. 

UZA

An Urbanized Area is a boundary, within which there is a pattern of continuous development out from a central core or the boundary of a UA delineated for the previous census. Existing UAs generally retain all territory that was within their previous boundaries. Areas added to the urban fringe must be contiguous to this core and must have a population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile. All area added to the UA must be connected directly by road to the main body of the UA, and this road connection must either be located within the area being added, or touch it on one side. The UA must contain at least 50,000 people.

Once this boundary is established by the Census Bureau, it is called the UZA, and becomes the starting point for the area planned for by the MPO.

ACUB  

The Adjusted Census Urban Boundary is a "smoothed" version of the UZA that determines the official urban designation for a road. Any road within or on the ACUB boundary is classified as an urban road. By adjusting the boundaries outward, the UAs are smoothed and create more consistent urban/rural road segment classifications, since the UZA is a US Census boundary that does not recognize political boundaries, whereas the ACUB can. Creation of an ACUB is a cooperative process between MDOT and the local units of government. 

MPA

The Metropolitan planning area (MPA) means the geographic area determined by agreement between the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the area and the Governor, in which the metropolitan transportation planning process is carried out. It generally begins with the ACUB and must by definition at least encompass the entire UZA.