SAFETEA-LU: Environmental Provisions for Transportation Planning

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SAFETEA-LU Environmental Provisions for
Transportation Planning
Summer Meeting of ADC50Williamsburg, VAJuly 26,
2006

• Michael Culp
• FHWA Office of Project Development and
  Environmental Review
• michael.culp_at_dot.gov

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SAFETEA-LU Section 6001

• Expanded environmental considerations in
  Metropolitan and Statewide Transportation
  Planning
• Consultation
• Mitigation

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Consultation Provision

• During development of long-range transportation
  MPOs and States must consult as appropriate
  with State and local agencies responsible for
• Land-use management
• Natural resources
• Environmental protection
• Conservation
• Historic preservation
• For Statewide plans, States must also consult
  with Tribal agencies

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Consultation Provision (cont)

• The consultation shall involve, as appropriate
• Comparison of transportation plans with State
  conservation plans or maps, if available or
• Comparison of transportation plans to inventories
  of natural or historic resources, if available

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Plans and Inventories
Natural Heritage Databases
Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plans
Land Use Plans

• What are the other plans or inventories that
  might be considered?

Wildlife Action Plans
Green Infrastructure Planning
Transportation plan
Special Area Management Plans
Watershed Plans
Historic Resource Inventories
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Mitigation Provision

• Long-range transportation plans must include a
  discussion of potential environmental mitigation
  activities and potential locations to carry them
  out
• Must be developed in consultation with Federal,
  State and Tribal wildlife, land management, and
  regulatory agencies

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How do the planning provisions relate to project
development, NEPA and 106?
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A few differences
Project Development/NEPA/106
Transportation Planning

• Lead agency/FHWA driven
• Project-Alternatives specific
• NEPA document/MOA
• Approved by FHWA
• Federal Action, reviewable by courts

• Local and State elected officials driven
  process
• High level (systems-perspective)
• Produces Long Range Plan/TIP
• Process Certified by FHWA/FTA
• Not a Federal Action or reviewable by courts

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Consideration of Cultural Resources
Project Development/NEPA/106
Transportation Planning

• Preservation plans
• Data/inventories
• General assessment
• Fuzzy, systems-level

• Project specific inventories
• Project-specific analysis
• Focused consideration of significance
  eligibility

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Mitigation
Project Development/NEPA/106
Transportation Planning

• General discussion of mitigation activities
• Avoidance and minimization during plan
  development
• Eco-system-level, banking (most value)
• Fuzzy, systems-level

• Project specific impact mitigation, avoidance
  and minimization
• Project-level, at project site and in-kind (may
  be costly and low value)

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Whats in it for you?Better Plans, Projects and
Stewardship

• Early involvement in planning envisioned as part
  of NEPA to ensure better decisions
• Planning products are being encouraged to be used
  in NEPA, given that they are done appropriately
• Projects from a environmentally-considerate
  planning process will be better projects
• If resource agencies are not involved, may have
  problems down the road

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Some next steps

• NPRM for Planning is currently out for comment
  until September 7, 2006
• Deadline for Planning Agencies to comply with
  provisions is July 1, 2007
• Agencies will likely be developing approaches to
  meet requirements soon

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Thank You!

• michael.culp_at_dot.gov