Highway Occupancy Permits
For the last several months, PennDOT has been hard at work revising the Highway Occupancy Permit (HOP) process. Property owners, both residential and commercial, who require driveway access onto a State Route, must obtain a HOP from PennDOT. Managing access by this HOP process is a significant responsibility with local and regional transportation system impacts on the line. If a development will have an adverse impact on the efficiency of the state road, those impacts must be mitigated by the developer. The extent of impacts and mitigation remedies are determined by conducting a Transportation Impact Study (TIS).
The goals of the revised guidelines are:
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streamline the overall process to ensure clearer and more predictable review times for PennDOT,
local governments, and developers; -
increase coordination among all parties earlier in the development approvals process;
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allow for more flexible mitigation options, to ensure that mitigation projects fit within the local
land use context; and -
align the process with the themes of Smart Transportation
The new HOP Transportation Impact Study Guidelines can be found at:
ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/Bureaus/BOMO/MC/FinalTISGuidelines.pdf.