[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 59 (Tuesday, March 28, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15511-15513]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-4497]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration


Preparation of Environmental Impact Statement for the South 
Florida East Coast Corridor Transit Analysis in Southeast Florida; 
Including Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach Counties, FL

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), U.S. Department of 
Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact 
Statement.

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SUMMARY: The FTA and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) 
are issuing this notice to advise the public that, in accordance with 
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Tier 1 of a Tiered, 
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) will be prepared for 
the South Florida East Coast Corridor Transit Analysis (SFECCTA) to 
evaluate transit improvements in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach 
Counties, Florida. The SFECCTA is located along the eastern spine of 
the tri-county South Florida region, centered on but not limited to the 
Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway alignment. The study proposes in Tier 
1 to evaluate preferred technologies (e.g., rail, bus, express bus, 
etc.) and alignments through areas with heavily congested roadways and 
under-served, transit-dependent populations. These areas extend from 
Downtown Miami north through Ft. Lauderdale's Central Business District 
(CBD) and north of Downtown West Palm Beach to the Town of Jupiter and 
Village of Tequesta in northern Palm Beach County. The Tier 1 Analysis 
consists of a Regional Transit Alternatives Analysis. The Tier 2 
Analyses will consist of subsequent Sectional Alternatives Analyses 
(per independent section of the SFECCTA study area).

DATES: Scoping meetings: A series of public scoping meetings will be 
held in North Miami, Miami-Dade County; Fort Lauderdale, Broward 
County; and, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida between April 
17th and April 24th, 2006. See ADDRESSES below. Comment Due Date: 
Written comments on the scope of alternatives and impacts to be 
considered should be sent to Scott P. Seeburger, Project Manager, 
Florida Department of Transportation by May 30th, 2006. See ADDRESSES 
below.

ADDRESSES: Written comments on the project scope should be sent to: 
Scott P. Seeburger, Project Manager, Florida Department of 
Transportation, District

[[Page 15512]]

IV Planning and Environmental Management, 3400 West Commercial 
Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309-3421, (954) 777-4632, 
[email protected].
    All scoping meetings will be held in wheelchair-accessible 
locations as follows:
    Broward County: Monday, April 17th, 2006, from 3 to 9 p.m. at 
Broward County Main Library--6th Floor, 100 South Andrews Avenue--Fort 
Lauderdale, Florida.
    Miami-Dade County: Wednesday, April 19th, 2006, from 3 to 9 p.m. at 
Gwen Margolis Community Center, 1590 N.E. 123rd Street--North Miami, 
Florida.
    Palm Beach County: Monday, April 24th, 2006, from 3 to 9 p.m. at 
Cohen Pavilion at the Kravis Center, Lecture Hall A 701 West Okeechobee 
Boulevard--West Palm Beach, Florida.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tony Dittmeier, Transportation Program 
Specialist, Federal Transit Administration, Atlanta Federal Center, 61 
Forsyth St., SW., Suite 17T50, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Telephone: (404) 
562-3512.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Scoping

    FTA, in cooperation with FDOT and the Federal Railroad 
Administration (FRA), will establish the scope of the Tiered, PEIS for 
the SFECCTA in accordance with NEPA after consulting with Federal, 
State, and local resource and regulatory agencies through meetings and 
correspondence, and after hearing from the general public. Interested 
individuals, organizations, and agencies are invited to participate in 
defining the alternatives to be evaluated and related issues of concern 
with this study. An Advance Notification (AN) describing the proposed 
project study in detail with maps, figures and summary tables of socio-
economic, social-cultural, environmental and other information was sent 
out by FDOT on January 23, 2006 and is also available on the project 
Web site at http://www.sfeccstudy.com/documents.html or by contacting 
Scott Seeburger, the FDOT Project Manager at the address, phone number, 
or email address given above under ADDRESSES. Also contact Mr. 
Seeburger to be placed on the project mailing list and receive 
information about the public scoping meetings and the project 
newsletter. Written comments on the alternatives and potential impacts 
to be considered should be sent to Scott Seeburger of FDOT.

II. Description of Study Area and Project Need

    As described in detail in the FDOT AN mentioned above, the proposal 
is to improve transit services within a 2-mile wide, 85-mile long 
corridor (100 miles with connections to seaports and airports) along 
the eastern spine of development in southeast Florida within the 
contiguous urbanized portions of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach 
Counties, Florida. This 203 square mile (mi2 ) study area is 
centered along, but not exclusively considering, the Florida East Coast 
(FEC) Railway from Downtown Miami (at the Miami-Dade Government Center) 
through the Central Business Districts (CBDs) of Downtown Aventura, 
Hollywood, Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach, 
and Jupiter, Florida. Improvements to transit services in this tri-
county, single Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) are considered 
necessary to provide for the existing and projected demands to move 
goods and people (i.e., freight and transit).
    Federal transit law requires that projects proposed for FTA funding 
come from a long range metropolitan transportation plan that is 
fiscally constrained and conforms to State air quality plans. The 
proposed project has been found consistent with the approved 
comprehensive Long Range Transportation Plans of the Miami-Dade, 
Broward, and Palm Beach County Metropolitan Planning Organizations 
(MPOs) and with the local gubernatorially-approved 2005 Miami-Dade, 
Broward, and Palm Beach County MPO Transportation Improvement Plans 
(TIPs). The project is also consistent with the Federally-approved 
conforming TIPs of each of the three MPOs. The study area is highly 
developed, experiencing rapid redevelopment/densification, and project 
need is demonstrated in that the capacity of transportation facilities 
and services throughout the eastern portion of the tri-county area is 
not adequate for the present movement of goods and people. Furthermore, 
demographics indicate a growing populace of transit dependent commuters 
that current capacity cannot properly service. Freight service also 
needs to be upgraded in order to meet future freight demands. The 
seaports have focused on the corridor along the FEC Railway for new 
intermodal and freight transportation capacity given that roadway 
expansion is limited. The safe and efficient movement of freight and 
people to and from the South Florida area is important to the overall 
economic and environmental health of the region.

III. Alternatives

    Alternatives under consideration include (1) taking no action; (2) 
Transportation Systems Management (TSM)/Baseline Alternative (planned 
transportation improvements);
    (3) Build Alignment Alternatives including:
     FEC railway corridor
     US 1/Federal Highway/Biscayne Boulevard
     Dixie Highway
     Other roadways
    (4) Build Technology/Transit Services Alternatives including:
     Intercity Passenger Rail (IPR)
     Commuter Rail Transit (CRT), including Diesel Multiple 
Unit (DMU) or Diesel-Electric Multiple Units (DEMU)
     Heavy Rail Transit (HRT)
     Monorails
     Light Rail Transit (LRT), including Light Diesel Multiple 
Unit (LDMU) or Light Diesel-Electric Multiple Units (LDEMU)
     Automated Guideway Transit (AGT)
     Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
     Express Bus
     Waterborne Transit

IV. Probable Effects/Potential Impacts for Analysis

    FTA and FDOT will evaluate all environmental, social, and economic 
impacts of the alternatives analyzed in the SFECCTA. This study will be 
incorporated into and serve as a source of information for the federal 
and state resource as well as regulatory agencies participating in 
Florida's Efficient Transportation Decision Making (ETDM) Process. The 
ETDM process was recently developed in response to the environmental 
provisions contained in Section 1309 of the Transportation Equity Act 
for the 21st Century (TEA-21), called ``Environmental Streamlining.'' 
The SFECCTA will be conducted in full compliance with the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 and other related Federal and 
State laws, rules, and regulations. The SFECCTA will also be developed 
in accordance with the environmental provisions of the Safe, 
Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy 
for Users (SAFETEA-LU).
    The Tiered EIS will evaluate purpose and need for the project, 
including project status, capacity, system linkage, legislation, social 
demands or economic development, modal interrelationships, and safety. 
The impact areas to be addressed include land use (existing, future, 
transit supportive/future

[[Page 15513]]

patterns, and redevelopment potential); wetlands; floodplains; wildlife 
and habitat; specially designated waters (Outstanding Florida Waters 
and Aquatic Preserves); Coastal Zone Consistency Determination; 
cultural resources; coastal barrier resources; contamination; sole 
source aquifers; noise and vibration; essential fish habitat; potential 
environmental justice issues as well as secondary, cumulative, and 
construction-related impacts; air and water quality; navigable waterway 
crossings; and permits required. The need for right-of-way acquisitions 
and relocations will also be evaluated. Alternative alignments, 
designs, station locations, and other measures to avoid, minimize, and 
mitigate adverse impacts will be developed and evaluated. The exact 
Purpose and Need and Range of Alternatives for this project will be 
established after an opportunity by the participating agencies and the 
public for involvement.

V. Public Involvement

    Letters describing the proposed action and soliciting comments will 
be sent to appropriate Federal, State, and local agencies, and to 
private organizations and citizens who have expressed interest in this 
proposal. The environmental review process for this project will 
include ``participating agencies'' from Federal, state, local agencies 
and tribal nations that have an interest in the project. Further, FTA 
and FDOT will establish a coordination plan for agency and public 
participation and comment. A public Web site has also been created for 
the project (http://www.sfeccstudy.com) where project information, 
notification of public meetings, and an opportunity to join the mailing 
list are provided. A series of public meetings (in conjunction with the 
project scoping meetings) will be held in North Miami, Miami-Dade 
County; Fort Lauderdale, Broward County; and, West Palm Beach, Palm 
Beach County, Florida between April 17th and April 24th, 2006. In 
addition, a public hearing will be held at the completion of each Tier 
of the PEIS. Public notice will be given of the time and place of the 
meetings and hearing. For each Tier, the Draft PEIS will be made 
available for public and agency review and comment. Formal scoping 
meetings are being held in conjunction with the public meetings listed 
above and are published on the project Web site's public meeting page.
    To ensure that the full range of issues related to the proposed 
action are addressed and all significant issues identified, comments 
and suggestions are invited from all interested parties. Comments or 
questions concerning this proposed action and the PEIS should be 
directed to the FTA at the address provided previously.

VI. FTA Procedures

    In accordance with FTA policy, all Federal laws, regulations, and 
executive orders affecting project development, including but not 
limited to the regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality and 
FTA implementing NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508, and 23 CFR part 771), 
the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, 
Executive Order 12898 regarding environmental justice, the National 
Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act, and Section 4(f) 
of the DOT Act, will be addressed to the maximum extent practicable 
during the NEPA process. In addition, FDOT seeks section 5309 New 
Starts funding for the project and will therefore be subject to the FTA 
New Starts regulation (49 CFR part 611). This New Starts regulation 
requires the submission of certain specified information to FTA to 
support an FDOT request to initiate preliminary engineering, which is 
normally done in conjunction with the NEPA process.

    Issued on: March 23, 2006.
Yvette G. Taylor,
Regional Administrator.
[FR Doc. E6-4497 Filed 3-27-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-57-P