[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 55 (Tuesday, March 24, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12445-12447]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-6421]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for Proposed
Transit Improvements in the Regional Connector Transit Corridor, Los
Angeles, CA
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, DOT.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Los Angeles
County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) intends to
prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Regional
Connector Transit Corridor Project in Los Angeles County, California.
LACMTA operates the Metro transit system in Los Angeles County. The
proposed project would provide a direct link connecting several light
rail service lines in operation or in construction through downtown Los
Angeles, CA.
The project area lies entirely within the City of Los Angeles and
is within the densely developed downtown core that includes multi-
family residences, industrial and public lands, commercial and retail
establishments, government office buildings, and private high-rise
office towers.
The EIS will be prepared in accordance with the requirements of the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its implementing
regulations. LACMTA will also use the EIS document to comply with the
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which requires an
Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The purpose of this notice is to
alert interested parties regarding the intent to prepare the EIS, to
provide information on the nature of the proposed project and possible
alternatives, to invite public participation in the EIS process
(including providing comments on the scope of the Draft Environmental
Impact Statement (DEIS), to announce that public scoping meetings will
be conducted, and to identify participating and cooperating agency
contacts.
DATES: Written comments on the scope of the EIS, including the
project's purpose and need, the alternatives to be considered, the
impacts to be evaluated, and the methodologies to be used in the
evaluations should be sent to LACMTA on or before May 11, 2009 at the
address below. See ADDRESSES below for the address to which written
public comments may be sent. Public scoping meetings to accept comments
on the scope of the EIS/EIR will be held on the following dates:
Monday, March 30, 2009; 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.; at the
University of Southern California (USC), Alumni Room, Davidson
Conference Center, 3415 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90007.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009; 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.; at the Lake
Avenue Church, 393 N Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009; 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.; at the
Japanese American National Museum (JANM), 369 E 1st Street, Los
Angeles, CA 90012.
Thursday, April 2, 2009; Noon to 1:30 p.m.; at the Los
Angeles Central Library, Board Room, 630 W 5th Street, Los Angeles, CA
90071.
The project's purpose and need and the description of alternatives
for the proposed project will be presented at these meetings. The
buildings 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 the scoping meeting should
contact Ms. Ann Kerman, Community Relations Manager, LACMTA, at (213)
922-7671, or [email protected].
Scoping materials will be available at the meetings and on the
LACMTA Web site (http://www.metro.net/regionalconnector). Paper copies
of the scoping materials may also be obtained from Ms. Ann Kerman,
Community Relations Manager, LACMTA, at (213) 922-7671, or
[email protected]. An interagency scoping meeting will be held on
Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. at LACMTA, in the Gateway Plaza
Room, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Representatives of
Native American tribal governments and of all Federal, State, regional
and local agencies that may have an interest in any aspect of the
project will be invited to be participating or cooperating agencies, as
appropriate.
ADDRESSES: Comments will be accepted at the public scoping meetings or
they may be sent to Ms. Dolores Roybal Saltarelli, AICP, Project
Manager, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, One
Gateway Plaza, Mail Stop? Los Angeles, CA 90012, or via e-mail at
[email protected]. The locations of the public 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:
Scoping
The FTA and LACMTA invite all interested individuals and
organizations, public agencies, and Native American Tribes to comment
on the scope of the EIS, including the project's purpose and need, the
alternatives to be studied, the impacts to be evaluated, and the
evaluation methods to be used. Comments should focus on: Alternatives
that may be less costly or have less environmental or community impacts
while achieving similar transportation objectives, and the
identification of any significant social, economic, or environmental
issues relating to the alternatives.
Project Initiation
The FTA and LACMTA will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement/
Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) for the Regional Connector
Transit Corridor pursuant to 23 U.S.C. 139 and the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). LACMTA is serving as the local lead
agency for purposes of CEQA environmental clearance, and FTA is serving
as the federal lead agency for purposes of National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) environmental clearance. This notice shall alert
interested parties to the preparation of the EIS/EIR, describe the
alternatives under consideration, invite public participation in the
EIS/EIR process, and announce the public scoping meetings. FTA and
LACMTA will invite interested Federal, State, tribal, regional and
local government agencies to be participating agencies under the
provisions of section 6002 of SAFETEA-LU.
Purpose and Need for the Project
The purpose of this project is to improve the region's public
transit service and mobility. The overall goal of
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the project is to improve mobility within the corridor by connecting to
the light rail service of the Metro Gold Line to Pasadena, the Metro
Gold Line Eastside Extension, the Metro Blue Line, and the Metro Expo
Line. This link would serve communities across the region, allowing
greater accessibility while serving population and employment growth in
downtown Los Angeles. Mobility issues throughout the region and the
identified need to join the unconnected segments of the light rail
system have been documented in several past studies, including the
Pasadena--Los Angeles Light Rail Transit Project Environmental Impact
Report (1993), the Blue Line Connection Preliminary Planning Study
(1993), and the Regional Light Rail Connector Study (2004).
Additional considerations supporting the need for the Regional
Connector Transit Corridor project include: Increased travel times and
station overcrowding occurring due to multiple transfers required to
traverse the project area; a project area that has many transit
dependent residents; poor system connectivity that results in reduced
system schedule reliability as current system expansions are completed;
and investments within the project area could improve system-wide
operations in regards to travel times and safety issues.
Project Location and Environmental Setting
The proposed light rail transit (LRT) project lies entirely within
the City of Los Angeles and is generally bounded by U.S. Highway 101 on
the north, 7th and 9th Streets on the south, Alameda Street on the
east, and State Route 110 on the west. Project length is just under two
miles and the LRT alternatives would have up to four stations plus
ancillary facilities including power substations. The project area is
the largest regional employment center in Los Angeles County, and is
densely developed with multi-family residences, industrial and public
lands, commercial and retail establishments, government office
buildings, and private high-rise office towers.
The proposed Regional Connector project would provide a direct link
connecting several light rail service lines in operation or in
construction (i.e., the Metro Gold Line to Pasadena, the Metro Gold
Line Eastside Extension, the Metro Blue Line, and the Metro Expo Line).
The proposed project would create a connection in downtown Los Angeles
that would link the Metro Blue and Expo Lines termini at 7th Street/
Metro Center Station (7th Street and Flower Street) to the Metro Gold
Line (Pasadena and Eastside) at the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station
at 1st Street and Alameda Street. This connection would provide through
service between the Metro Blue Line to Long Beach, the Metro Gold Line
to Pasadena and East Los Angeles, and the Metro Expo Line to Culver
City. With the implementation of the Regional Connector project, these
four lines would share tracks and stations in downtown Los Angeles.
The various alternatives to be considered for the Regional
Connector project generally traverse Flower Street north from 7th
Street, 2nd Street between Flower and Alameda, Main and Los Angeles
Streets between Temple Street and 2nd Street, Temple Street between
City Hall and Alameda Street, and Alameda Street between U.S. Highway
101 and 2nd Street.
Alternatives
The Regional Connector Transit Corridor Final Alternatives Analysis
Report (2009) prepared by LACMTA identified four alternatives for
further consideration in the EIS/EIR. The four alternatives include: A
No-Build Alternative, Transportation System Management (TSM)
Alternative, At-Grade Emphasis LRT Alternative, and Underground
Emphasis LRT Alternative.
No-Build Alternative: The No Build Alternative would maintain
existing transit service through the year 2030. No new transportation
infrastructure would be built within the project area aside from
projects currently under construction, or funded for construction and
operation by 2030 by recently approved Measure R sales tax. Bus transit
service under the No Build Alternative would be focused on the
preservation of existing services and projects. By the projection year
of 2030, some bus service would have been reorganized and expanded to
provide connections with the new rail lines; however, the transit
network within the project area would largely be the same as it is now.
Transportation Systems Management (TSM) Alternative: The TSM
Alternative would include the provisions of the No Build Alternative
and add two shuttle bus routes from 7th Street/Metro Center station to
Union Station providing a link between the region's unconnected LRT
services, one along Grand Ave. and 1st St., and one along Figueroa,
Flower, 2nd, and 3rd Streets. The shuttle buses would use existing bus-
only lanes, where available, and would be fitted with transit-priority
signalization devices similar to those used on Metro Rapid. Stops would
be located every few blocks so as to provide full coverage of the area.
Each shuttle route would be one and one-half to two miles in length.
At-Grade Emphasis LRT Alternative: This alternative would extend
from the underground 7th Street/Metro Center Station, head north under
Flower Street, surface to at-grade north of 5th Street, cross 3rd
Street, enter Bunker Hill, and turn northeast through a new entrance to
the existing 2nd Street tunnel. The alignment would continue along 2nd
Street where it would split into an at-grade couplet configuration on
Main and Los Angeles Streets (one track on each roadway) to Temple
Street. Then it would head east on Temple Street and realign into a
dual track configuration just north of the Metro Gold Line Little
Tokyo/Arts District Station on Alameda Street. Due to the high volume
of trains that would traverse the Regional Connector, an automobile
underpass and pedestrian overpass would be constructed at the
intersection of Temple and Alameda Streets to eliminate pedestrian-
train and automobile-train conflicts.
There are two options for the configuration on Flower Street. For
Option A, trains would transition to underground tracks after crossing
3rd Street and continue to a new underground station just south of 5th
Street, then proceed to the 7th Street/Metro Center Station and arrive
at the existing Metro Blue Line platform. For Option B, trains would
arrive at an at-grade station after crossing 3rd Street, then
transition to underground tracks near 4th Street to reach the existing
Metro Blue Line platform at 7th Street/Metro Center station. In total,
the At-Grade Emphasis LRT Alternative would add 1.8 miles of new double
track to the light rail system.
In addition to the Option A and Option B Station configurations,
other station locations would include a station adjacent to Bunker
Hill, south of 2nd Street and Hope Street, and a split station using
Main and Los Angeles Streets between 1st and Temple Streets. A fourth
optional station on 2nd Street between Broadway and Los Angeles Street
will be analyzed.
Underground Emphasis LRT Alternative: From the 7th Street/Metro
Center Station, this alternative would extend north along Flower Street
with a new underground station north of 5th Street. At 2nd Street, the
underground tunnel would extend east with new underground stations to
provide access to Bunker Hill and to the area between Los Angeles
Street and Broadway. The tunnel would emerge to at-grade connections
just southwest of the intersection of 1st and Alameda Streets.
[[Page 12447]]
At 1st and Alameda Streets, a new underpass would carry car and truck
traffic along Alameda Street below the rail junction, and a new
overhead pedestrian bridge structure would eliminate most conflicts
between pedestrians and trains. This Alternative would have a single
at-grade crossing at the intersection of 1st and Alameda Streets. The
rest of the route would be underground. The length of this proposed
route would be 1.6 miles.
Station locations for this alternative would all be underground and
include the area north of 5th Street on Flower Street, adjacent to
Bunker Hill just south of 2nd Street and 2nd Street between Los Angeles
and Main Streets.
Probable Effects
The purpose of this EIS/EIR process is to study, in a public
setting, the effects of the proposed project and its alternatives on
the physical, human, and natural environment. The FTA and LACMTA will
evaluate all significant environmental, social, and economic impacts of
the construction and operation of the proposed project. Impact areas to
be addressed include: transportation, land use, zoning and economic
development, secondary development, land acquisition, displacements and
relocations, cultural resources (including historical, archaeological,
and paleontological resources), parklands/recreational facilities,
neighborhood compatibility and environmental justice, visual and
aesthetic impacts, natural resources (including air quality, noise and
vibration, wetlands, water resources, geology/soils, and hazardous
materials), energy use, safety and security, wildlife, and ecosystems.
Measures to avoid, minimize, and mitigate adverse impacts will be
identified and evaluated.
FTA Procedures
The regulations implementing NEPA, as well as provisions of the
Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A
Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), call for public involvement in the EIS
process. Section 6002 of SAFETEA-LU requires that FTA and LACMTA do the
following: (1) Extend an invitation to other Federal and non-Federal
agencies and Native American tribes that may have an interest in the
proposed project to become ``participating agencies;'' (2) provide an
opportunity for involvement by participating agencies and the public to
help define the purpose and need for a proposed project, as well as the
range of alternatives for consideration in the EIS; and (3) establish a
plan for coordinating public and agency participation in, and comment
on, the environmental review process. An invitation to become a
participating or cooperating agency, with scoping materials appended,
will be extended to other Federal and non-Federal agencies and Native
American tribes that may have an interest in the proposed project. It
is possible that FTA and LACMTA will not be able to identify all
Federal and non-Federal agencies and Native American tribes that may
have such an interest. Any Federal or non-Federal agency or Native
American tribe interested in the proposed project that does not receive
an invitation to become a participating agency should notify at the
earliest opportunity the Project Manager identified above under
ADDRESSES.
A comprehensive public involvement program and a Coordination Plan
for public and interagency involvement will be developed for the
project and posted on LACMTA's Web site (Regional Connector Transit
Corridor Project Web page: http://www.metro.net/regionalconnector). The
public involvement program includes a full range of activities
including the project Web page on the LACMTA Web site, development and
distribution of project newsletters, and outreach to local officials,
community and civic groups, and the public. Specific activities or
events for involvement will be detailed in the public involvement
program.
LACMTA may seek New Starts funding for the proposed project under
49 United States Code 5309 and will, therefore, be subject to New
Starts regulations (49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 611). The
New Starts regulations also require the submission of certain project-
justification information to support a request to initiate preliminary
engineering. This information is normally developed in conjunction with
the NEPA process. Pertinent New Starts evaluation criteria will be
included in the EIS.
The EIS will be prepared in accordance with NEPA and its
implementing regulations issued by the Council on Environmental Quality
(40 CFR parts 1500-1508) and with the FTA/Federal Highway
Administration regulations ``Environmental Impact and Related
Procedures'' (23 CFR part 771). In accordance with 23 CFR 771.105(a)
and 771.133, FTA will comply with all Federal environmental laws,
regulations, and executive orders applicable to the proposed project
during the environmental review process to the maximum extent
practicable. These requirements include, but are not limited to, the
environmental and public hearing provisions of Federal transit laws (49
U.S.C. 5301(e), 5323(b), and 5324); the project-level air quality
conformity regulation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
(40 CFR part 93); the section 404(b)(1) guidelines of EPA (40 CFR part
230); the regulation implementing section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act (36 CFR part 800); the regulation implementing section
7 of the Endangered Species Act (50 CFR part 402); section 4(f) of the
Department of Transportation Act (23 CFR 771.135); and Executive Orders
12898 on environmental justice, 11988 on floodplain management, and
11990 on wetlands.
Issued on: March 19, 2009.
Leslie T. Rogers,
Regional Administrator, Region IX, Federal Transit Administration.
[FR Doc. E9-6421 Filed 3-23-09; 8:45 am]
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