Vice mayor elected to serve as chair of MPO
Sanibel Vice Mayor Mick Denham has been unanimously elected to serve as the 2019 chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization.
MPOs are required to represent localities in all urbanized areas with populations over 50,000, as determined by the U.S. Census. MPOs are designated by agreement between the governor and local governments that together represent at least 75 percent of the affected population – including the largest incorporated city, based on population – or in accordance with procedures established by applicable state or local law. When submitting a transportation improvement program to the state for inclusion in the statewide program, MPOs self-certify that the projects meet all federal requirements.
Each MPO must prepare a Metropolitan Transportation Plan, in accordance with federal law to accomplish the objectives outlined by the MPO, state and public transportation providers with respect to the development of the metropolitan area’s transportation network. The plan must identify how the metropolitan area will manage and operate a multi-modal transportation system, including transit, highway, bicycle, pedestrian, and accessible transportation, to meet the region’s economic, transportation, development and sustainability goals – among others – for a 20-plus-year planning horizon, while remaining fiscally constrained.
Denham was elected to the Sanibel City Council in 2005. He has since been re-elected in 2009, 2013 and 2017. He was appointed by his peers as mayor from 2007 to 2010 and as vice mayor from 2005-2007, 2010-2013 and 2015 to present.
Denham is the council’s liaison to BIG ARTS, the Southwest Florida League of Cities and Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, is a voting member of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, and serves on the J.N. “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society Advocacy Committee. He also was appointed to serve on the Florida League of Cities’ Energy, Environmental and Natural Resources Legislative Policy Committee and Nominating and Resolutions Committees, and he is Sanibel’s voting delegate for the National League of Cities.
In 2012 and 2018, Denham was awarded the Florida League of Cities Home Rule Hero Award. In 2008, he received the Conservationist of the Year Award by the Southwest Florida Audubon Society.