The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) is the Federally designated metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the 10-county region of Southwestern Pennsylvania, tasked with overseeing comprehensive transportation planning. SPC plays a vital role in developing and implementing strategies to improve the region’s transportation infrastructure, ensuring that it meets the needs of residents, businesses, and future growth. From highways and bridges to public transit and bike trails, SPC coordinates investments that enhance mobility, reduce congestion, and promote sustainable transportation solutions. By working closely with federal, state, and local stakeholders, SPC ensures that the region's transportation projects are aligned with long-term economic and community goals.
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A key aspect of SPC’s work is developing and overseeing the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), which prioritizes and allocates funding for crucial transportation projects across the region. This includes maintaining existing infrastructure, expanding transit options, and addressing emerging challenges like multimodal connectivity and climate resilience. SPC also conducts in-depth studies and public outreach to understand the needs of the region’s diverse communities, ensuring that transportation planning reflects their priorities. Through its leadership in transportation planning, SPC is driving progress toward a connected, efficient, and forward-thinking transportation network for Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Transportation planning can be complex!  That is why Counties and Municipalities working together is so crucial.  The Planning District process is facilitating this, including providing detailed information about the programs for transportation and mobility funding.  View the complete side deck from the December 11, 2024 meeting to learn more. 

Thanks to the continued participation and dedication of municipal officials of the Mon-Yough District, the Mon-Yough team is starting to take shape. Through honest, facilitated discussion thus far, we are beginning to be able to answer the question, “Who is Team Mon-Yough?” From this shared process, group voices are beginning to come together and the characteristics of the team are starting to be teased out. 
 
Although each municipality has its own unique and separate characteristics, many also overlap and inform the Mon-Yough as a whole. At the September meeting, we had asked municipal officials to participate in a team WIKI (“What I Know Is”) exercise where participants paired up to ask each other a series of questions. From this exercise, it's clear that team members share several of the same values, motivations, expectations of others, and limits. 
 
The Mon-Yough team is one that: 

• Values commitment to community;
• Is motivated by new ideas and completing projects;
• Expects cooperation and honesty as members work together;
• Cannot abide by an unwillingness to participate or apathy.

 
At the end of the meeting, compiling team statements helped to summarize what was learned about the team in the team WIKI exercise. These statements fall into four buckets: commitment to citizens, working together, ethical responsibility, and hardworking nature. Through the process of identifying team values, motivations, expectations of others, and limits, we have started to define how the Mon-Yough team can successfully function together. As we move forward through this shared process, we will continue to tease out more values and characteristics, fill these buckets, and inform our reimagining of the Mon-Yough region. 

We are excited to begin a new journey with the Mon-Yough Planning District after a successful kickoff meeting which, was held on August 28th at the Rostraver Municipal Building! Thank you to our communities in the Mon-Yough region that participated and provided valuable input. Through representation from City of Monessen, Rostraver Township, Smithton Borough, Sutersville Borough, and West Newton Borough, we were able to begin exploring the Planning District concept as it is laid out in Reimagining Our Westmoreland.

At the event, Planning and Development Director, Jason Rigone, welcomed municipal representatives and thanked them for their willingness and commitment to participate in the shared process. Westmoreland County Commissioner, Doug Chew, showed his support for the process by attending the event. Commissioner Chew commended local officials for their leadership in working together and emphasized the importance of local official participation in this process to better address common challenges across communities and to implement the comprehensive plan at the local level.
Deputy Director, Josh Spano, presented a detailed look at the county's population and workforce challenges, common opportunities, and provided and overview of Reimagining Our Westmoreland’s over-arching goal, core objectives, and strategies.

Local government consultant, Susan Hockenberry, defined the steps of the Planning District process and spoke to the value of multi-municipal relationship building that the process will soon cultivate. Susan then guided attendees through a discussion to determine challenges communities currently face and opportunities or areas of exploration the group was interested in. Through this discussion, we learned that several Mon-Yough Planning District communities face shared challenges and are looking forward to exploring strategies surrounding investing in downtowns, code enforcement, blight mitigation, and workforce development.

We encourage you to join us at the next meeting on Wednesday, September 25th, 2024, at 6:00 PM at the Regional Trail Corporation located at 111 Collinsburg Road, West Newton, PA 15089. 
Municipal officials can RSVP here.  You can also contact Westmoreland Planning at (724) 830-3600.  

As a county, we’re experiencing demographic changes that present unique challenges to economic and community development. While overall county demographic figures foretell an aging and declining workforce, figures at the Planning District level may differ. Similar to countywide demographic changes, the Mon-Yough District’s population change is characterized by decline. The district saw an initial 0.4% decline in population between 2010 and 2017 and continual decline between 2017 and 2021 with a 2.4% decrease in population.  ​

We recognize that these regional changes are broad in their impact, and what affects one municipality may easily affect others. School districts cross municipal borders. Employers seek employees across municipal borders. Residents may live in one community, but need to shop in another. With fewer employees, there are fewer paychecks to support restaurants and retail stores, schools, and infrastructure in every community. How can we better prepare for impacts and address the trend of decline?

​The Planning Districts approach recognizes:

1. Local government is best suited to understand local wants and needs and to carry out recommendations from the comprehensive plan;
2. County government and regional partners are best suited to deliver planning and technical assistance; and
3. Collaboration and partnership between the two is a formula for implementation. 

Join us and other local officials from the 8 municipalities of the Mon-Yough Planning District on Wednesday, August 28th at 6:00 PM at the Rostraver Municipal Building located at 201 Municipal Drive, Rostraver Township, PA 15012 as we kickoff the Planning District process. All municipal officials are invited to attend, please RSVP here. 

​Join us and other local officials from the 8 municipalities of the Mon-Yough Planning District on Wednesday, August 28th, 2024 at the Rostraver Municipal Building located at 201 Municipal Dive, Rostraver Township, PA 15012 at 6:00pm as we kickoff the Planning District process.

​All municipal officials are invited to attend, please RSVP here.