Early Scoping Notice for an Alternatives Analysis of Proposed Transit Improvements in Ogden-Weber State University Transit Corridor of Ogden, UT, 10340-10342 [E9-4996]

Agencies

• Federal Transit Administration
• DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 10, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10340-10342]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-4996]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration


Early Scoping Notice for an Alternatives Analysis of Proposed 
Transit Improvements in Ogden-Weber State University Transit Corridor 
of Ogden, UT

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Early scoping notice.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Utah Transit 
Authority (UTA) issue this early scoping notice to advise other 
agencies and the public that they intend to explore, in the context of 
the Council on Environmental Quality's early scoping process, methods 
of improving transit service in the City of Ogden, Utah. The early 
scoping process is part of a planning Alternatives Analysis (AA) 
required by Title 49 United States Code (U.S.C.) Sec. 5309 for the 
selection of alternatives that will be subject to the appropriate 
environmental process

[[Page 10341]]

under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Early scoping 
meetings have been planned and are announced below.
    The Ogden-WSU Transit Corridor Alternatives Analysis is focusing on 
improving transit service in a 5-mile corridor between downtown Ogden 
and Weber State University (WSU). The entire study area is located 
within the City of Ogden, Weber County, Utah. The corridor connects the 
Ogden Intermodal Center/FrontRunner commuter rail station to the area's 
major employment, housing, commercial and education destinations, 
including Downtown Ogden, Weber State University, and McKay Dee 
Hospital. With the connection to FrontRunner commuter rail, the 
corridor also serves trips to and from the greater Wasatch Front 
Region. In 2005, the UTA and its regional partners completed a Major 
Investment Feasibility Study of the corridor. The 2005 study concluded 
that a corridor connecting downtown Ogden and WSU was a promising 
candidate for increased transit capital investment, potentially 
incorporating streetcar or Bus Rapid Transit service. This study also 
developed local consensus for an initial statement of the Purpose and 
Need for the project, and evaluated potential alignments and modes.
    The planning Alternatives Analysis now being initiated is expected 
to result in the selection of a Locally Preferred Alternative by the 
Utah Transit Authority and its partners, which include the Wasatch 
Front Regional Council, the metropolitan planning organization for the 
Greater Salt Lake metropolitan area. Other partners include the City of 
Ogden, Weber County, Weber State University, McKay Dee Hospital, and 
the Utah Department of Transportation. The Locally Preferred 
Alternative will then be a ``proposed action,'' subject to an 
appropriate environmental review under the National Environmental 
Policy Act (NEPA). If the Preferred Alternative is anticipated to have 
significant impacts, an environmental impact statement (EIS) would be 
initiated with a Notice of Intent (NOI) in the Federal Register. Public 
and agency scoping of the EIS would be conducted at that time.
    The early scoping notice is intended to generate public comments on 
the scope of the alternatives analysis. This includes the purpose and 
need for the project, the range of alternatives, and environmental and 
community impacts and benefits to be considered in the alternatives 
analysis.

DATES: Written comments on the scope of the planning Alternatives 
Analysis, including the alternatives to be considered and the impacts 
to be assessed should be mailed to Ogden/WSU Transit Corridor Project, 
c/o Elizabeth Scanlon, UTA, 669 West 200 South, Salt Lake City, UT 
84101 or e-mailed to lscanlon@rideuta.com by April 30, 2009.
    Early scoping meetings to accept comments on the scope of the 
Alternatives Analysis will be held on the following dates:
     Tuesday, March 24th, 4 to 7 p.m., Ogden Eccles Conference 
Center (ground floor-small ballroom), 2415 Washington Blvd. in Ogden.
     Thursday, March 26th, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Weber State 
University Student Union Bldg (second level-main auditorium), 1217 
University Circle in Ogden.
    Scoping materials for these meeting will be provided at the meeting 
sites and are available on UTA's Web site at https://rideuta.com. 
Scoping materials include the draft purpose and need for the project 
and the initial set of alternatives proposed for study. The buildings 
and facilities used for the scoping meetings are accessible to persons 
with disabilities. Any individual who requires special assistance, such 
as a sign language interpreter, to participate in scoping should 
contact Elizabeth Scanlon, UTA at 801-236-4706 or lscanlon@rideuta.com. 
Hard copies of the scoping materials are also available.
    An interagency scoping meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 21st 
from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Weber Center, 2380 Washington Blvd, Suite 359 
in Ogden. Representatives of Native American tribal governments and of 
all Federal, State and local agencies that may have an interest in any 
aspect of the project will be invited.
    In addition to the early scoping meetings, additional agency and 
public scoping meetings may be required under NEPA if the Preferred 
Alternative is determined to potentially have significant environmental 
impacts and an EIS is required. The dates and locations for EIS scoping 
meetings would be included in a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an 
EIS and would be advertised in the same manner as this Early Scoping 
Notice.

ADDRESSES: Written comments on this Early Scoping Notice should be 
mailed to Ogden/WSU Transit Corridor Project, c/o Elizabeth Scanlon, 
UTA, 669 West 200 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84101 or e-mailed to 
lscanlon@rideuta.com. UTA also accepts written comments through its Web 
site at https://rideuta.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Utah Transit Authority_
lscanlon@rideuta.com.
    Federal Transit Administration_david.beckhouse@dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Early Scoping

    The FTA and UTA invite all interested individuals and 
organizations, public agencies, and Native American tribes to comment 
on the scope of the Ogden-Weber State University Transit Corridor 
Alternatives Analysis, including the purpose and need for transit 
improvements in the corridor, the alternatives to be considered, and 
the types of impacts to be evaluated. Comments at this time should 
focus on the purpose and need for transit improvements in the corridor; 
alternatives that may be less costly or have less environmental impact 
while achieving similar transportation objectives; and, the 
identification of any significant social, economic, or environmental 
issues that should be considered in developing the alternatives. Early 
scoping is an optional element of the National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA) process that is particularly useful in situations where, as 
here, a proposed action (the locally preferred alternative) has not 
been identified and alternative modes and major alignment variations 
are under consideration in a broadly-defined corridor.

Purpose and Need for Action

    The purpose of the Ogden-Weber State University Transit Corridor 
Project is to provide high-quality transit service that:
    (1) Improves the level of service and transit ridership between the 
Ogden Intermodal Center, the Ogden Central Business District, Weber 
State University, and McKay-Dee Hospital;
    (2) assists the City of Ogden in achieving vital economic and 
community development goals; and,
    (3) is affordable, enjoys wide public support, and encourages local 
partnerships.

Alternatives

    A range of alternatives is being considered including various 
transit technologies, corridor alignments, configurations and 
operations, station types and locations, and Transportation Systems 
Management (TSM) improvements. In addition to these various types of 
actions, the implications of a No-Action alternative will be considered 
in the analysis. The following summarizes the general types of 
alternatives to be considered in the

[[Page 10342]]

analysis, understanding that a variety of possible alternatives, and 
combinations thereof, will be initially identified and then undergo 
screening to define the alternatives for advancement to the 
environmental evaluation process. Further description of this process 
is provided below under FTA Procedures.
    The initial set of transit modal alternatives to be evaluated in 
the Alternatives Analysis include:
    --A streetcar alternative that features frequent rail service 
running primarily within local street rights-of-way, either in 
dedicated or shared lanes, with stations placed along the alignment to 
serve important origins/destinations and maintain competitive trip 
times for end-end users.
    --A Bus Rapid Transit alternative that features low-floor bus 
vehicles providing fast, reliable and frequent service in both 
directions, using either dedicated or shared lanes serving stations 
along the alignment.
    --Station alternatives, including terminus stations at both ends of 
the line, including a regional park and ride at/near WSU and a 
platform-platform connection with FrontRunner and other services at the 
Ogden Intermodal Center.
    --An array of alignments providing the connections to the major 
markets to be served. These include a general alignment that begins at 
the Intermodal Center in downtown Ogden and then down to Washington 
Boulevard, turning east at 26th Street and then to Harrison Boulevard 
and south to Weber State University to approximately 46th Street. Other 
options include an alignment from the Intermodal Center and then to 
Washington Boulevard and continuing south to 30th Street or 36th 
Street, and then traveling east to Harrison Boulevard and south to 46th 
Street. (A map of the alignments is posted on https://www.rideuta.com 
under the ``Projects'' tab.). Other variations to these general 
alignments being considered would include entering the Weber State 
University campus roadway system and providing service directly to the 
McKay-Dee Hospital. Determining whether the Bus Rapid Transit or 
Streetcar alignments and stations would operate in their own lanes or 
in shared lanes will be decided, and if they would be in a protected 
median in the center of a roadway or running along the side of a 
roadway.
    --Future No-Action Alternative. The study will consider the 
transportation and environmental effects if no new major transit 
investments are implemented in this corridor. This alternative will 
include the highway and transit projects in the current Wasatch Front 
Regional Council Transportation Plan Update 2007-2030.
    --Transportation System Management (TSM) Alternative--The study 
will consider the effects of modest improvements in the highway and 
transit systems beyond those in the Future No-Action Alternative. The 
TSM Alternative would evaluate low-cost enhancements to the Future No-
Action Alternative and would emphasize transportation system upgrades 
such as intersection improvements, minor road widening, traffic 
engineering actions, bus route restructuring, more frequent bus 
service, and other transit service improvements that do not require 
major capital investments.
    In addition to the alternatives described above, other reasonable 
alternatives identified through the early scoping process will be 
considered for potential inclusion in the planning Alternatives 
Analysis, with reasonable meaning the technology is proven and 
currently implemented.

FTA Procedures

    UTA may seek Small Starts funding for the proposed project under 49 
U.S.C. Sec. 5309 and will, therefore, be subject to Smalls Starts 
regulation (49 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] part 611). The Small 
Starts regulations require a planning Alternatives Analysis that leads 
to the selection of a Locally Preferred Alternative by UTA and its 
partners, and the inclusion of the locally preferred alternative in the 
long-range transportation plan adopted by the Wasatch Front Regional 
Council. The planning Alternatives Analysis will examine alignments, 
technologies, station locations, costs, funding, ridership, economic 
development, land use, engineering feasibility, and environmental 
factors in the corridor. The Small Starts regulation also requires the 
submission of certain project-justification information in support of a 
request to initiate preliminary engineering. After the identification 
of a proposed action at the conclusion of the planning Alternatives 
Analysis, the appropriate NEPA documentation shall be determined by the 
FTA. If preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement is warranted, 
a NOI will be published in the Federal Register and the scoping of the 
EIS will be completed by soliciting and considering comments on the 
purpose and need for the proposed action, the range of alternatives to 
be considered in the EIS, and the potentially significant environmental 
and community impacts to be evaluated in the EIS.
    A plan for coordinating public and agency participation in the 
environmental review process and for commenting on the issues under 
consideration at various milestones of the process will be prepared and 
posted on the UTA Web site at https://www.rideuta.com (under the 
``Projects'' tab).

    Issued on: March 2, 2009.
Terry J. Rosapep,
Regional Administrator.
 [FR Doc. E9-4996 Filed 3-9-09; 8:45 am]
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