[Federal Register: January 28, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 18)]
[Notices]
[Page 4619-4621]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr28ja10-119]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on
Transportation Improvements Within the Blue-Line Corridor in Shaker
Heights and Warrensville Heights, Cuyahoga County, OH
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, U.S. Department of
Transportation.
ACTION: Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Greater
Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA or RTA) are issuing this
notice to advise interested agencies and the public that, in accordance
with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) may be prepared for the proposed transportation
improvements in the Blue Line Corridor and extended areas located in
Shaker Heights and Warrensville Heights, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
The EIS will evaluate the following alternatives: (a) A no-build
alternative; (b) a Transportation System Management (TSM) alternative;
and (c) various build alternatives that emerge from the scoping
process. Scoping will be accomplished through meetings and
correspondence with interested persons, organizations, the general
public, and federal, state and local agencies.
The EIS will address the need to: (a) Improve mobility and
accessibility in the corridor; (b) minimize adverse environmental
impacts of the transportation improvements; (c) provide long-term,
cost-effective transportation infrastructure and services; and (d)
enhance regional economic development.
DATES: Comment Due Date: Written comments on the purpose and need for
the improvements, and the scope of the alternatives and impacts to be
considered, should be sent to the address listed below in ADDRESSES by
February 11, 2010. An interagency scoping meeting will be held on the
following date:
Monday, February 22, 2010, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the
Warrensville Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, 22035
Clarkwood Parkway, Warrensville Heights, Ohio 44128.
The location of the scoping meeting is accessible to persons with
disabilities. Any individual with a disability who requires special
assistance to participate in the scoping meetings should contact
Maribeth Feke, Director of Programming and Planning, The Greater
Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, 1240 W.6th Street, Cleveland,
Ohio 44113-1331. Phone: 216-566-5160; Fax (216) 771-4424; E-mail to
BlueLineExtension@pbworld.com no later than a week before the meeting
date in order for GCRTA to make necessary arrangements.
ADDRESSES: Written comments on the purpose and need for the project,
alternatives to be considered, scope of the analysis and the impacts to
be considered should be sent by February 11, 2010 to: Maribeth Feke,
Director of Programming and Planning, The Greater Cleveland Regional
Transit Authority, 1240 W.6th Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44113-1331.
Phone: 216-566-5160; Fax (216) 771-4424; E-mail:
BlueLineExtension@pbworld.com.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen Polito, Federal Transit
Administration, Region 5, 200 West Adams Street, Suite 320, Chicago, IL
60606. Phone: (312) 353-1552; Fax: (312) 886-0351.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: FTA, the federal lead agency, in cooperation
with GCRTA, the local lead agency, may prepare an EIS for proposed
transportation improvements in the Blue Line Corridor and extended
areas. The lead agencies will also seek the cooperation of the Ohio
Department of Transportation (ODOT); the Northeast Ohio Area
Coordinating Agency (NOACA), the Metropolitan Planning Organization
(MPO) responsible for transportation planning in metropolitan
Cleveland; the City of Shaker Heights; and the City of Warrensville
Heights.
The transportation improvements are being defined through an
Alternatives Analysis. Issues and alternatives will be identified
through a scoping process in accordance with the regulations
implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as
amended. The scoping process will include refinement of the purpose and
need for the project, and the identification and evaluation of
alternative design concepts. It also will provide the basis for the
selection of a preferred design concept for inclusion in the regional
transportation plan. Subsequently, alternative alignments and designs
that are consistent with the selected concept and scope may be
addressed in an EIS.
The RTA is evaluating the potential extension of the Blue Line
Rapid Transit Route beyond its current terminus in the Warrensville--
Van Aken area of Shaker Heights. A major bus transfer center is co-
located with the Blue Line, forming a major hub in RTA's service
network. The major transportation improvement to be evaluated by this
alternatives analysis includes light rail, bus access and circulation,
and pedestrian access.
Although RTA completed a Major Investment Study (MIS) on this
corridor in 2001, and a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) was
initiated with the MIS, no recommendation for a locally-preferred
alternative was made. Since then, the City of Shaker Heights has
completed a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Study of the
Warrensville--Van Aken area, resulting in recommendations to redevelop
the area. Major components of that plan are to: (a) Reconfigure the
existing six-leg Warrensville--Van Aken intersection into a standard
four-leg intersection; (b) modify the surrounding roadway network to
accommodate the intersection reconfiguration and to improve
walkability; and (c) to generally enhance the economic development
opportunities in the area. Reconfiguration of the Warrensville--Van
Aken intersection includes the relocation of the Blue Line's Van Aken
station and the associated bus transfer center from the northwest
quadrant to the southeast quadrant of the intersection. The City of
Shaker Heights is currently engaged in another related project, the
Warrensville--Van Aken Intermodal Facility Plan, which will guide
redevelopment in the area of the relocated rail transit station and bus
transfer center. The roadway reconfiguration project and the Intermodal
Facility Plan are on-going, concurrent with the Blue Line Corridor
Alternatives Analysis study.
Taking into account these existing plans, the Blue Line Corridor
Alternatives Analysis study will evaluate the potential extension of
the Blue Line in accordance with requirements of the FTA New Starts/
Small Starts/Very Small Starts Program. The study will incorporate a
community outreach and engagement program, designed to obtain and
incorporate the opinions and ideas of the stakeholders and general
public into the development and evaluation of the potential
alternatives to extend the Blue Line and relocate the bus transfer
center. The Blue Line Corridor Alternatives Analysis study consists of
three phases, as described below:
Phase 1--Alternatives Analysis: The Alternatives Analysis will
identify the transportation and development needs of the extended Blue
Line Corridor and a preferred strategy for meeting those
[[Page 4620]]
needs. In doing this, the Alternatives Analysis will carry forward the
work performed under the 2001 Blue Line Extension MIS, the
Warrensville--Van Aken TOD study and the Warrensville--Van Aken
Intermodal Facility Plan. The outcome of the alternatives analysis will
be a local consensus on a preferred alternative, for which
environmental documentation would be developed in Phase 2, and FTA
documentation for entry into Preliminary Engineering under FTA's New
Starts (or Small Starts or Very Small Starts) Program can be prepared.
Phase 2--NEPA Documentation: This phase addresses NEPA
investigations and environmental coordination. The NEPA investigation
will begin in the alternatives evaluation phase, with identification of
environmental fatal flaws and sensitive areas for each alternative as
part of the alternatives screening. This will include input obtained
through the community engagement process.
Phase 3--FTA New Starts Coordination: The project team will
coordinate with FTA to ensure that all reporting requirements related
to the project evaluation and rating, the financial capacity of the
project sponsor, and the technical methods and planning assumptions
used to prepare the travel demand and cost forecasts are met.
I. Scoping
RTA and the FTA invite interested individuals, organizations, and
federal, state, and local agencies to participate in establishing the
purpose, alternatives, schedule, and analysis approach, as well as an
active public involvement program. The public is invited to comment on:
(a) The purpose and need; (b) the alternatives to be addressed; (c) the
modes and technologies to be evaluated; (d) the alignments and station
locations to be considered; (e) the environmental, social, and economic
impacts to be analyzed; and (f) the evaluation approach to be used to
select a locally-preferred alternative. Scoping comments should focus
on the issues and alternatives for analysis, and not on the preference
for particular alternatives. (Individual preference for particular
alternatives should be communicated during the comment period for the
DEIS that will be prepared subsequent to the Alternatives Analysis
study. Refer to FTA Procedures below.) Comments may be made at the
meetings or in writing no later than March 15, 2010 (see DATES and
ADDRESSES above).
NEPA ``scoping'' (40 CFR 1501.7) has specific and fairly limited
objectives, one of which is to identify the significant issues
associated with alternatives that will be examined in detail in the
document, while simultaneously limiting consideration and development
of issues that are not truly significant. It is in the NEPA scoping
process that potentially significant environmental impacts--those that
give rise to the need to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement--
should be identified. Impacts that are deemed not to be significant
need not be developed extensively in the context of the impact
statement, thereby keeping the statement focused on impacts of
consequence consistent with the ultimate objectives of the NEPA
implementing regulations, which is ``to make the Environmental Impact
Statement process more useful to decision-makers and the public; and to
reduce paperwork and the accumulation of extraneous background data, in
order to emphasize the need to focus on real environmental issues and
alternatives * * * [by requiring] impact statements to be concise,
clear, and to the point, and supported by evidence that agencies have
made the necessary environmental analyses.'' (See Executive Order
11991, of May 24, 1977.) Transit projects may also generate
environmental benefits; these should be highlighted as well. The impact
statement process should draw attention to positive impacts, not just
negative impacts.
Once the scope of the environmental study, including significant
environmental issues to be addressed, is settled, an annotated outline
of the document will be prepared and shared with interested agencies
and the public. The outline serves at least three worthy purposes,
including:
1. Documenting the results of the scoping process;
2. Contributing to the transparency of the process; and
3. Providing a clear roadmap for concise development of the
environmental document.
II. Description of Study Area and Purpose and Need
The RTA completed a Strategic Plan for its future capital
investments. The plan examined both the opportunities for expansion of
RTA's system, and the constraints placed on it by RTA's financial
capacities. Financial plans are suggesting that RTA will have to be
very prudent in its capital investments to develop highly cost-
effective improvements while maintaining its significant existing
infrastructure. The Shaker Heights TOD plan suggested a relatively
short extension of the Blue Line south and west of the existing station
site.
The Shaker Heights TOD plan and the Blue Line Extension MIS provide
a starting place for the Alternatives Analysis. The study area is
within the urban settings of the City of Shaker Heights and the City of
Warrensville Heights, but it also includes the communities of Highland
Hills and North Randall. The project is bounded approximately by
Interstate 271 to the east, Interstate 480 to the south, Warrensville-
Center Road to the west, and Cedar Road to the North. The project area
contains a diverse mix of medium-density residential developments,
retail centers, large office developments, recreation uses of a golf
course and horse racing track, and the major institutions of Cuyahoga
Community College and the new University Hospital's Chagrin Highland
Campus.
The purpose of the Blue Line Corridor Extension is to: (a) Develop
transportation improvements that reach new transit markets located to
the south and east of the corridor; (b) improve transit connections
between downtown Cleveland and the southeastern portion of the region;
(c) improve access for existing users of the corridor to destinations
within the study area; and (d) promote redevelopment and/or development
along the existing and extended Blue Line corridor. Among the defined
transportation needs assessed in this document are the following issues
and items.
There is no direct freeway access from the southeastern
portion of the region to downtown Cleveland or University Circle. This
lack of direct access makes travel by personal automobile and transit
difficult. Travelers must either take a longer interstate route (I-480
west to I-77 north) or congested and slow regional arterials.
The bus and rail options for inbound travelers are limited
and suffer from the same lack of direct routes as those operating
personal automobiles. Bus service to downtown can either operate
indirectly on freeways or use congested and slow regional arterials.
The existing Blue Line offers an expedited ride on an exclusive
guideway, but is limited because it does not have direct access to the
freeway network, nor does it directly access University Circle.
The RTA has limited park-and-ride opportunities in the
study area for transit service to downtown Cleveland and University
Circle. The nearest RTA park-and-ride lot, Southgate, only has 28
spaces, and is not adjacent to the
[[Page 4621]]
freeway network. Commuters desiring to park-and-ride at the
Warrensville--Van Aken Blue Line terminus must first deal with
navigating the local street network, and then must park over \1/4\-mile
from the station.
Travelers who do use the existing roadway system
experience significant congestion. Congestion occurs on all local
freeways, with I-480 experiencing a LOS of F during both AM and PM peak
periods. This congestion results in a loss of time and productivity for
those traveling to and from the study area. Many of the arterials also
experience LOS of D or worse.
Outbound commuters who live along the existing Blue Line
corridor in both Cleveland and Shaker Heights have connectivity issues
using transit to connect to jobs and retail located within the study
area.
III. Alternatives
The scoping meetings, other community meetings, and written
comments will be a major source of alternatives for consideration in
the Alternatives Analysis. Transportation alternatives proposed for
consideration in the Blue Line Extension will include:
1. No Action Alternative--Existing and planned transit service and
programmed new transportation facilities to the year 2030 with no new
change to transportation services or facilities in the area beyond
already committed projects.
2. Light Rail Build Alternative--Extension of the Blue Line south
and west of the existing Warrensville--Van Aken Station site at the
northwest corner to the southeast corner of Chagrin Avenue and
Warrensville-Center Road; from the existing location south to the area
of Interstate 480; or from the existing location east to south east to
the area of Interstate 271.
3. Transportation System Management (TSM) Alternative--Other
technology alternatives: TSM will include signal prioritization of bus
transit corridor(s) through the use of GPS chips and signal controller
upgrades.
Based on public and agency input received during scoping,
variations of the above alternatives and other transportation-related
improvement options, both transit and non-transit, will be considered
for the Blue Line Extension project.
IV. Probable Effects/Potential Impacts for Analysis
The FTA and RTA will consider probable effects and potentially
significant impacts to social, economic and environmental factors
associated with the alternatives under evaluation in the EIS. Potential
environmental issues to be addressed will include: land use, historic
and archaeological resources, traffic and parking, noise and vibration,
environmental justice, regulatory floodway/floodplain encroachments,
coordination with transportation and economic development projects, and
construction impacts. Other issues to be addressed in the EIS include:
natural areas, ecosystems, rare and endangered species, water
resources, air/surface water and groundwater quality, energy,
potentially contaminated sites, displacements and relocations, and
parklands. The potential impacts will be evaluated for both the
construction period and the long-term operations period of each
alternative considered. In addition, the cumulative effects of the
proposed project alternatives will be identified. Measures to avoid or
mitigate any significant adverse impacts will be developed.
Evaluation criteria will include consideration of the local goals
and objectives established for the study, measures of effectiveness
identified during scoping, and criteria established by FTA for `''New
Start'' transit projects.
V. FTA Procedures
In accordance with the regulations and guidance established by the
Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), as well as the Code of Federal
Regulations, Title 23, Part 771 (23 CFR 771) of the FHWA/FTA
environmental regulations and policies, the EIS will include an
analysis of the social, economic and environmental impacts of each of
the alternatives selected for evaluation. The EIS will also comply with
the requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) and with
Executive Order 12898 regarding Environmental Justice. After its
approval, the DEIS will be available for public and agency review and
comment. Public hearings will be held on the DEIS. The DEIS will also
constitute the Alternative Analysis required by the New Starts
regulations.
The Final EIS will consider comments received during the DEIS
public review and will identify the preferred alternative. Opportunity
for additional public comment will be provided throughout all phases of
project development.
Issued on: January 20, 2010.
Marisol Simon,
Regional Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2010-1707 Filed 1-27-10; 8:45 am]
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