Transportation & Land Use

Click here to go to the main PACTS website

What is PACTS?
In 1975, the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation Committee (PACTS) was designated as the federally mandated "metropolitan planning organization" for the Portland region. The federal government established these entities in all urbanized areas of the country in order to improve the coordination of transportation planning and investment decisions by state, municipal and public transportation organizations. The PACTS area includes portions or all of 15 communities: Biddeford, Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Gorham, North Yarmouth, Old Orchard Beach, Portland, Saco, Scarborough, South Portland, Westbrook, Windham and Yarmouth.

PACTS members include the 15 communities, seven public transportation providers, the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the Maine Turnpike Authority, the Greater Portland Council of Governments, the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission, the Southern Maine Corridor Committee (SMCC), other public and private transportation organizations, and interested citizens.

PACTS has four standing committees. The Policy Committee is the governing body of PACTS. The Planning, Technical and Transit Committees advise the Policy Committee. Click here for the PACTS website and then click on Committees from the drop down

menu bar to appropriate Committee link for more information.

PACTS is staffed by John Duncan, Director, and Paul Niehoff , Senior Transportation Planner, Carl Eppich, Transportation Planner and is assisted by GPCOG staff.

What We Do
PACTS provides a continuing, coordinated and comprehensive planning process for the Greater Portland urbanized area, and a forum for collaborative decision-making amongst the members. PACTS sponsors and conducts studies, assists other planning agencies, and monitors compliance with federal air quality goals. PACTS also approves the use of FHWA and FTA funds for transportation improvements in the PACTS area. The largest contribution to the funding of our work comes from the FHWA and the FTA. The MaineDOT and all of our member agencies and municipalities also contribute.

Destination Tomorrow - the award winning PACTS Regional Transportation Plan - is the most important regional transportation plan for the Greater Portland region since the 1960s. The Plan provides a vision for the transportation system through 2025, and calls for a new level of coordination between our transportation planning and funding partners.

The Plan addresses current problems of congestion, accessibility and mobility while laying the framework for the transportation system of tomorrow. The Plan acknowledges today's fiscal, political and social realities, while incrementally extending beyond the status quo to better integrate the disciplines of transportation and land use planning through regional collaboration.

Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)
The PACTS Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) is the principal funding program for certain federal transportation funds within the PACTS Funding Area. The MaineDOT and the PACTS Policy Committee share the responsibility for the programming of these funds. Each agency commits to transportation investments within the PACTS area. In order for a proposal to be funded, each agency must agree with the investments proposed by the other agency. PACTS and the MaineDOT work closely together throughout the process of project proposal selection.