About

What is an MPO?: Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) were created by Congress in 1962 through the Federal Aid Highway Act. This legislation focused on planning for urban areas, rather than cities.  Each MPO has an Urban Area (UA) that is based on population density and is re-evaluated after each Decennial Census.  This UA population calculation determines an MPO’s funding allocation. Each MPO is required to establish a Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA) that includes its Urban Area (UA), plus the area expected to become urbanized within 20-years.

CAMPO: The Columbus Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) was designated as the MPO for the Columbus Area by the Governor of Indiana February 27, 2004. The CAMPO MPA encompasses Bartholomew County. CAMPO’s Urbanized Area Boundary (UAB) is mostly focused around Columbus, but it also extends north to include the area around Edinburgh. Therefore, the Edinburgh area is included in the calculations of the CAMPO urban area population. However, this Edinburgh area is within the Indianapolis MPO Planning Area (IMPO MPA). By interlocal agreement, CAMPO is responsible for “long range planning [MTP] and project funding [TIP] for the Columbus UA located in Johnson and Shelby counties [Edinburgh]”.

CAMPO Policy Board

CAMPO is directed by its Policy Board, which includes representatives of the participating local governments within its planning area – the City of Columbus and Bartholomew County – as well as the Indiana Department of Transportation.  The Policy Board receives regular input from its Technical Committee. The Policy Board adopts the CAMPO Operational Bylaws, which govern the operations of the Board and its advisory committee. The Policy Board meets quarterly and otherwise as needed, and includes the following members:

City of Columbus Representatives

  • Mary Ferdon, Mayor
  • Tom Dell, City Council Member
  • Dennis Baute, Plan Commission Member (Policy Board Vice-Chairperson)

Bartholomew County Representatives

  • Tony London, County Commissioner
  • Kim Bennett, County Council Member
  • Tom Finke, Plan Commission Member (Policy Board Chairperson)

Partner Agency Representatives

Technical Committee

The Technical Committee is a working group of transportation specialists in the CAMPO planning area, including those from state and federal partner agencies. This committee is responsible for reviewing CAMPO plans, reports, and issues and making recommendations on each to the Policy Board.  The Technical Committee includes the following members:

  • Jeff Bergman, City of Columbus-Bartholomew County Planning Director
  • Andrew Beckort, Columbus City Engineer (Technical Committee Chairperson)
  • Danny Hollander, Bartholomew County Engineer (Technical Committee Vice-Chairperson)
  • Mark Jones, Columbus Parks & Recreation Director
  • Jeff Lucas, Bartholomew County Surveyor’s Office Mapping Division Head
  • Brian Payne, Columbus Municipal Airport Assistant Director
  • Roger Kelso, Columbus City Utilities Director
  • Steve Norman, Columbus Police Chief
  • Matt Dudukovich, ColumBUS Transit Coordinator
  • Becky Packer, INDOT Seymour District, Special Projects Engineer
  • Brett Boezeman, Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation Director of Operations
  • Brian Jones, INDOT Transit Program Manager
  • Emmanuel Nsonwu, INDOT Transportation Planner
  • Patrick Carpenter, Federal Highway Administration (Technical Committee Non-Voting Member)
  • Angelica Salgado, FTA Transportation Program Specialist (Technical Committee Non-Voting Member)