[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 210 (Wednesday, October 31, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61706-61708]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 07-5406]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration


Early Scoping Notice for an Alternatives Analysis of Proposed 
Transit Improvements in the Eastside Extension Phase II Transit 
Corridor of Los Angeles, CA

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Early Scoping Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Los Angeles 
County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) 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, alternative means of improving transit capacity 
and service in the Eastside Extension Phase II Transit Corridor of Los 
Angeles, California. The early scoping process is part of a planning 
Alternatives Analysis (AA) required by Title 49 United States Code 
(U.S.C.) Sec.  5309, that will lead to the selection of the proposed 
action and alternatives that will be subject to the appropriate 
environmental process. Early scoping meetings have been planned and are 
announced below.
    The Eastside Extensive Phase II Transit Corridor is east-west 
oriented and includes all or portions of the cities of Montebello, Pico 
Rivera, Monterey Park, Industry, Downey, Whittier, Commerce, Rosemead, 
South El Monte, South San Gabriel, Sante Fe Springs, Bell as well as 
unincorporated portions of the County of Los Angeles. The study area 
generally extends from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, north to 
the Interstate 10 freeway, east to approximately three miles east of 
the State Route 605, and south to Interstate 5 freeway. The 
Alternatives Analysis will study the extension of high capacity transit 
service from the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension to approximately 3 
miles east of the State Route 605.
    The conclusion of the planning Alternatives Analysis is expected to 
be the selection of a Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) by the LACMTA 
and the Southern California Association of Governments, which is the 
official metropolitan planning organization for Los Angeles. The LPA 
will then be the ``proposed action'' that is subject to an appropriate 
environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA). If the selected LPA would have significant impacts, an 
environmental impact statement (EIS), combined with a California 
environmental impact report (EIR) would be initiated with a Notice of 
Intent in the Federal Register and distribution of a Notice of 
Preparation (NOP) required under the California Environmental Quality 
Act (CEQA). Public and agency scoping of the EIS/EIR would be conducted 
at that time. In particular, the purpose and need for the project, the 
range of alternatives to be considered in the EIS/EIR, the 
environmental and community impacts to be evaluated, and the 
methodologies to be used, would be subject to public and interagency 
review and comment, in accordance with 23 U.S.C. 139 and CEQA.

DATES: Written comments on the scope of the planning Alternatives 
Analysis, including the alternatives to be considered, should be sent 
to LACMTA at the address below by November 30, 2007. See ADDRESS below 
for the address to which written public comments may be sent. Early 
scoping meetings to accept public comments on the scope of the planning 
Alternatives Analysis will be held on the following dates:
     Thursday, November 8, 2007, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. 
Palm Park, 5703 Palm Avenue, Whittier, CA 90601.
     Saturday, November 10, 2007, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Senior 
Center at City Park, 115 South Taylor Avenue, Montebello, CA 90640.
     Wednesday, November 14, 2007, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. 
Potrero Heights Elementary School, 8026 East Hill Drive, Rosemead, CA 
91770.
     Thursday, November 15, 2007, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. 
North Park Middle School/Cafeteria, 4450 Durfee Avenue, Pico Rivera, CA 
90660.
    The draft purpose and need for the project and the initial set of 
alternatives proposed for study will be presented at these meetings. 
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 a scoping meeting should contact Mr. David Monks, LACMTA at 213 922-
7456 or [email protected].
    Scoping materials will be available at the meetings and are also 
available on the LACMTA Web site at http://www.metro.net/eastside. Hard 
copies of the scoping materials are available from Mr. David Monks, 
LACMTA at 213 922-7456 or [email protected].
    An interagency scoping meeting will be held on Thursday, November 
8, 2007, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at LACMTA, One Gateway Plaza, 3rd 
Floor Board Overflow Room, Los Angeles, CA 90012. 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 by phone, letter, or e-mail.

ADDRESSES: Written comments on this Early Scoping Notice should be sent 
to Ms. Kimberly Yu, Project Manager, Los Angeles County Metropolitan 
Transportation Authority, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012, 
phone 213-922-7910, e-mail [email protected]. The locations of the early 
scoping meetings are given above under DATES.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Ray Tellis, Team Leader, Los 
Angeles Metropolitan Office, Federal Transit Administration, 888 South 
Figueroa Street, Suite 1850, Los Angeles, CA 90017, phone 213-202-3950, 
e-mail [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Early Scoping

    The FTA and LACMTA invite all interested individuals and 
organizations, public agencies, and Native American tribes to comment 
on the scope of the planning Alternatives Analysis, including the 
purpose and need for transit improvements in the corridor, the 
alternatives transit modes and alignments 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;

[[Page 61707]]

alternatives that may be less costly or have less environmental impacts 
while achieving similar transportation objectives; and the 
identification of any significant social, economic, or environmental 
issues that should be considered in developing the alternatives.

Purpose and Need for Action

    The project purpose is to improve public transit service and 
mobility in the Eastside Extension Phase II Transit Corridor. The 
project would provide the study area an improved fixed-guideway east-
west transit service from the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension 
currently under construction, to cities further east of the City of Los 
Angeles. Possible eastern extensions from the Metro Gold Line would 
generally continue east parallel to or along State Route 60, Beverly 
Boulevard, Olympic Boulevard or Whittier Boulevard. The overall goal of 
the proposed project is to improve mobility in the Eastside Extension 
Phase II Transit Corridor by extending the benefits of the existing 
Metro Gold Line and bus investments beyond the current terminus. 
Mobility problems and potential improvements for this corridor have 
been well documented in many studies that are available from Metro's 
Record's Management Department including numerous Metro Red Line 
planning studies, Eastside Transit Corridor Studies: Re-Evaluation 
Major Investment Study (2000), Southern California Association of 
Governments (SCAG) planning studies, the Metro Rapid Demonstration 
Project (2000), and in the Southern California Association of 
Governments Regional Transportation Plan (2004). Additional 
considerations supporting the project's need include:
     The concentration of activity centers and destinations in 
the Eastside Extension Phase II Transit Corridor;
     Increasing traffic congestion on the highway network 
throughout the Eastside Extension Phase II Transit Corridor, which has 
led to public and political support for a high-capacity transit 
alternative to the automobile;
     The County General Plan of the County of Los Angeles which 
is transit-supportive;
     The existing concentration of transit supportive land uses 
in the Eastside Extension Phase II Transit Corridor;
     The high population and employment densities in the 
Eastside Extension Phase II Transit Corridor;
     Local redevelopment plans that are highly support of, and 
dependent on, high capacity transit services in the Eastside Extension 
Phase II Transit Corridor;
     The existing high ridership levels on bus lines in the 
Eastside Extension Phase II Transit Corridor;
     Significant transit dependent population in the Eastside 
Extension Phase II Transit Corridor;
     Forecasts of significant future population and employment 
growth in the Eastside Extension Phase II Corridor;
     Existing and future travel demand patterns that 
demonstrate a strong and growing demand for high-capacity transit in 
the Eastside Extension Phase II Corridor;
     Emerging travel patterns associated with a job-rich study 
area that has led to significant westbound congestion during the 
morning rush hours and corresponding eastbound congestion during the 
evening rush hours; and
     Local policy directed toward travel demand management and 
transit solutions rather than the expansion of the street and highway 
network.

Alternatives

    The Eastside Extension Phase II Corridor Study proposes to extend 
transit from the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension to cities east of 
Los Angeles. Historically two routes have been previously considered 
for this extension; to the City of Whittier via Atlantic and Whittier 
Boulevards and the City of Whittier via Beverly Boulevard, Paramount 
Boulevard and Whittier Boulevard.
    Light rail transit, the transit mode that is currently used in the 
Metro Gold Line, is being considered. It normally follows an at-grade 
configuration although underground and aerial configurations may also 
be considered in some locations. Other transit modes, including Bus 
Rapid Transit (BRT), high speed trolley and any other reliable, cost-
effective forms of fixed guideway transit may also be considered. 
Proposed station sites (along two alternative alignments) include 
Beverly/Atlantic, Beverly/Gerhart, Beverly/Garfield, Beverly/Wilcox, 
Beverly/Montebello, Beverly/4th, Whittier/Gerhart, Whittier/Garfield, 
Whittier/Wilcox, Whittier/Montebello, Whittier/Rosemead, Whittier/
Passons, Whittier/Norwalk, Whittier/Arizona, Whittier/Atlantic, and 
Beverly/Arizona.
    Future No-Build Alternative--The study will consider the 
transportation and environmental effects if no new major transit 
investments beyond those that have already been planned are implemented 
in this corridor. This alternative will include the highway and transit 
projects in the current Metro Long Range Transportation Plan and the 
2030 Southern California Association of Governments Regional 
Transportation Plan. For purposes of the planning Alternatives 
Analysis, the major fixed guideway investments under study for the 
Exposition Transit Corridor Phase 2 and Crenshaw Transit Corridor 
projects would not be included in the Future No-Build Alternative. The 
completion of the Metro Rapid Bus Program would be included as well as 
possible additional feeder bus networks to serve the region's major 
activity centers.
    Transportation System Management Alternative (TSM)--The study will 
consider the effects of modest improvements in the highway and transit 
systems beyond those in the Future No-Build Alternative. The TSM 
Alternative would evaluate low-cost enhancements to the Future No-Build 
Alternative and would emphasize transportation system upgrades, such as 
intersection improvements, minor road widening, traffic engineering 
actions, bus route restructuring, shortened bus headways, expanded use 
of articulated buses, reserved bus lanes, expanded park-and-ride 
facilities, express and limited-stop service, signalization 
improvements, and timed-transfer operations.
    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. Alternative modes, vertical or horizontal alignments, or 
station locations may emerge from the early scoping process.

FTA Procedures

    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. While 
NEPA scoping normally follows issuance of a notice of intent, which 
describes the proposed action, it ``may be initiated earlier, as long 
as there is appropriate public notice and enough information available 
on the proposal so that the public and relevant agencies can 
participate effectively.'' See the Council on Environmental Quality's 
''``Forty Most Asked Questions Concerning CEQ's National Environmental 
Policy Act Regulations,'' 46FR 18026, 18030 (1981). In this case, the 
available information is more than adequate to permit the public and 
relevant agencies to participate effectively in early scoping and the 
planning Alternatives Analysis.

[[Page 61708]]

    LACMTA may seek New Starts funding for the proposed project under 
49 U.S.C. 5309 and will, therefore, be subject to New Starts regulation 
(49 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Part 611). The New Starts 
regulation requires a planning Alternatives Analysis that leads to the 
selection of a Locally Preferred Alternative by LACMTA and the 
inclusion of the locally preferred alternative in the long-range 
transportation plan adopted by the Southern California Association of 
Governments. 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 New 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, if preparation of an environmental impact 
statement is warranted, a Notice of Intent (NOI) will be published in 
the Federal Register and the scoping of the EIS/EIR will be continued 
by soliciting and considering comments on the results of the planning 
Alternatives Analysis, the purpose and need for the proposed action, 
the range of alternatives to be considered in the EIS/EIR, and the 
potentially significant environmental and community impacts to be 
evaluated in the EIS/EIR.
    Concurrent will publication of the NOI pursuant to NEPA, an NOP 
will be distributed pursuant to CEQA. In conjunction with this final 
scoping of the EIS/EIR and consistent with provisions of 23 U.S.C. 139 
and CEQA, invitations will be extended to other Federal and non-Federal 
agencies that may have an interest in this matter to be participating 
agencies. 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 LACMTA Web site at http://www.metro.net/eastsidephase2.

    Issued on: October 25, 2007.
Leslie T. Rogers,
Regional Administrator, Region IX, Federal Transit Administration.
[FR Doc. 07-5406 Filed 10-30-07; 8:45 am]
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