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| Environment |
Public Involvement |
Learning the viewpoints and opinions of the stakeholders in transportation projects is one of the chief elements of the FHWA project development process. Stakeholders can be the users or those affected by construction or traffic. Since the Federal-aid Highway Act of 1950 and the Federal Transit Laws originally enacted in 1964, we have worked to ensure that all interested persons have the opportunity for a voice in how our transportation system is developed. In conjunction with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), we extended opportunity for public involvement throughout the location and design process for specific transportation projects. In 1991 the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and in 1998 the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) extended the opportunity for public involvement into the transportation planning process. It is the intent of NEPA that agencies encourage and facilitate public involvement in decisions which affect the quality of the human environment. The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations on implementing NEPA require that agencies make diligent effort to involve the public in preparing and implementing their NEPA procedures They also require that agencies provide public notice of NEPA-related hearings, public meetings, and the availability of environmental documents so as to inform those persons and agencies who may be interested or affected. It has long been a challenge to grab and hold people's interest in a project or plan, convince them that active involvement is worthwhile, and provide the means for them to have direcet and meaningful impact on its decisions. The FHWA and FTA published the guide Public Involvement Techniques for Transportation Decisionmaking in September, 1996 to provide agencies with access to a wide variety of tools to involve the public in developing specific plans, programs, or projects through their public involvement processes. It discusses a wide variety of subjects, including Civic Advisory Committees, Public Meetings/Hearings, Negotiation & Mediation, and Improving Meeting Attendance. Public involvement is more than just a hearing, or one meeting near the end of the process. It needs to be an early and continuing part of the process. It is essential to "know" the community's values in order to avoid, minimize, and mitigate impacts as well as narrow the field of alternative modes (for planning) and alignments (for projects). The community also needs to understand the tradeoffs and constraints behind the process, and to "buy-in" to the project. Public involvement allows the State and resource agencies to know the impacts as viewed by the community. Instead of public "finding out" and stopping/delaying the project late in the process, early and continuing public involvement allows us to know the problems/impacts up front and deal with them early; so the designers can avoid or minimize or otherwise design the project before they have fully designed and provided the best engineering solution. If involved early, the public can provide insight (directly or indirectly) into what their community would find acceptable in the way of mitigation--perhaps some form of community enhancement that will allow to project to fit more harmoniously into the community. The public also knows the things they would like to change and promote within their community. If the community's demographics, values, impacts, and desires are discovered early and on a continuing basis through public involvement as the planning and project development processes proceed, the designer can incorporate this knowledge into consideration when designing the plan or project -- using design options and incorporating avoidance, minimization, and mitigation of impact as well as adding enhancements into the design. |
