Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) is the metropolitan planning organization for the Delaware Valley. Created in 1965 by an interstate compact, DVRPC is responsible for transportation and regional planning in the greater Philadelphia area.

The first evidence of regional planning in the Delaware Valley was in the form of the “Regional Planning Federation of the Philadelphia Tri-State District” which was formed in 1928 and which issued the first regional plan in 1932. The agency was disbanded in 1941.

Philadelphia’s Urban Traffic and Transportation Board may be the next link, producing Plan and Program 1955. This agency was followed by the Penn Jersey Transportation Study which was organized to resume regional planning and which metamorphosed into the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC).

The role of the DVRPC is to gather elected officials and government planners to improve transportation, promote smart growth initiatives, and protect the environment. The Commission was first instituted as a regional planning agency in 1965 under a contract between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 1967, it was formally established under the "Delaware Valley Urban Compact" to provide continuing, comprehensive, coordinated regional planning for the Delaware Valley Urban Area and to provide a variety of services designed to address regional issues and needs. The structure, authority, purpose and administrative procedures of DVRPC were defined, via thi compact, by the legislatures of both states. DVRPC was subsequently designated as the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for its nine-county planning region and retained this designation through the implementation of the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). ISTEA gave the Commission an expanded transportation planning authority and responsibility, as defined in the USDOT Final Rules for Statewide Planning and Metropolitan Planning. Subsequent federal bills have continued and expanded this designation and responsibility.

The Commission is governed by an 18-member board that establishes regional policy, defines committee duties, and adopts the annual work program. A 10-member executive committee oversees general operations and fiscal matters, including adoption of the annual budget.

On July 19, 2011, the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records (OOR) determined that DVRPC was covered under the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law (RTKL) of 2008 and was therefore required to provide access to public records in its possession. DVRPC, in response to several requests for information from the Pennsylvania Transit Expansion Coalition (PA-TEC), had previously argued that it was exempt from the state law, as it was a multi-state agency that did not perform any essential function, despite being funded almost entirely by taxpayers. The OOR overruled DVRPC's assessment, stating that the RTKL eliminated the requirement than an entity perform an essential governmental function in order to be considered an agency. The OOR had further determined that members of PA-TEC, despite repeated attempts to obtain information from DVRPC, had not engaged in disruptive behavior, which the DVRPC stated had “a chilling effect” on citizen participation because they "involve e-mails exchanged with leaders of the RCC, who aren't employees of the commission." The OOR ordered the DVRPC to comply with PA-TEC's request and release all documents the group has requested; DVPRC initially waived its right to appeal the decision in Commonwealth court.

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