Summary

This is the 2024 AMATS Area Boundary, showing all areas where AMATS funds can be used.  AMATS coordinates transportation improvements in Anchorage. In areas with 50,000 or more people, a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) works to balance transportation goals between state and local needs. AMATS is the MPO for the Anchorage region.

Description

Every ten years, with each census, MPO boundaries are reviewed with input from the State and local transportation operators. After the 2020 Census, the AMATS boundary was updated to include all Urbanized Areas identified by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Census defines these areas based on population density, using Block Group lines that can create uneven shapes, which don’t always fit transportation planning needs. Federal law lets States and MPOs adjust these areas for transportation purposes, making the adjusted boundary larger, but not smaller, than the Census Urbanized Areas. The AMATS area includes all of the Municipality of Anchorage except for the smaller communities of the Turnagain Arm region, including Girdwood.  The gap in population density between the northern and southern sections of the area is too wide to be included in the boundary according to how census urbanized boundaries are calculated.