Federal Transit Administration January 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces final environmental actions taken by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for public transportation projects in the following areas: San Francisco, California; Miami, Florida; Sacramento, California; and Hudson County, New Jersey and New York, New York. The purpose of this notice is to announce publicly the environmental decisions by FTA on the subject projects and to activate the limitation on any claims that may challenge these final environmental actions.

This notice solicits proposals to compete for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 funds through the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks Program (Transit in Parks Program), formerly the Alternative Transportation in Parks and Public Lands program (ATPPL), administered by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) in partnership with the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. The purpose of the program is to enhance the protection of national parks and Federal lands, and increase the enjoyment of visitors' experience. The program funds capital and planning expenses for alternative transportation systems such as buses and trams in federally-managed parks and public lands. Federal land management agencies, as well as State, tribal and local governments acting with the consent of a Federal land management agency are eligible to apply. DOI, after consultation with and in cooperation with FTA, will determine the final selection and funding of projects.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is providing notice that it is withdrawing circular C5620.1, ``Guidelines for Preparing Environmental Assessments.'' The circular, which was issued in 1979, is outdated and should no longer be relied upon for guidance or cited in documents prepared for federally funded transit projects. FTA plans to develop new guidance at some point in the future.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) issue this notice to advise governmental agencies, the public and other interested stakeholders of FTA's and FDOT's intent to continue the early scoping and planning- level National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)/Florida's Efficient Transportation Decision Making (ETDM) process previously initiated for the South Florida East Coast Corridor Transit Analysis (SFECCTA) study. This notice is announcing to interested parties that additional early scoping meetings will be held at the beginning of the second phase of early scoping/ETDM on the dates provided below, and to inform the general public regarding the ongoing planning process. The FTA and FDOT have been exploring transportation alternatives along an 85-mile section of the existing Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway freight corridor between Miami and Tequesta, Florida. A programmatic Tier 1 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) developed an approach for evaluating impacts associated with various transportation improvement alternatives. The Tier 1 DEIS identified a number of transportation improvement alternatives that will be further evaluated in the continuation of the early scoping/ETDM process. This process is intended to result in selection of one or more locally- preferred transportation improvement alternatives. FDOT has been engaged in alternatives analysis and produced the Final Conceptual Alternatives Analysis/Environmental Screening Report (AA/ESR) that documents the results of the first phase of the SFECCTA planning. An electronic copy of this interim report is available upon request from the contact below. With the continuation of early scoping, the FTA and FDOT will discontinue the pursuit of a Tiered Programmatic EIS process and continue the statutorily required Alternatives Analysis process. Within this process, it is FDOT's intention to screen alternatives and determine transportation mode and general alignment within the corridor for each of the three independent corridor sections. At the conclusion of the early scoping process, the locally approved alternatives (LPAs) for each corridor segment will be adopted by the individual Metropolitan Planning Organizations and the Long Range Transportation Plans will be updated. FTA and FDOT will then prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement incorporating by reference all early scoping environmental planning efforts.