[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 211 (Tuesday, November 3, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56820-56822]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-26423]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Bureau of the Census
[Docket Number 090429803-91272-02]
Procedures for Participating in the 2010 Decennial Census New
Construction Program
AGENCY: Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau) publishes this notice
to announce the final procedures for the New Construction Program,
which allows tribal and local governments to submit lists of addresses
for newly constructed housing units to the Census Bureau. The purpose
of this program is to ensure that the Census Bureau's address list is
as complete and accurate as possible for the conduct of the decennial
census on April 1, 2010. This notice also summarizes the comments
received on the July 1, 2009, Federal Register notice (74 FR 31405)
requesting comments on the proposed 2010 Census New Construction
Program and the response of the Census Bureau.
Electronic availability: This notice is available on the Internet
from the Census Bureau's Web site at http://www.census.gov/.
DATES: These New Construction procedures, which reflect revisions based
on public comment following publication of draft procedures, will be
implemented on November 3, 2009.
ADDRESSES: Correspondence concerning the 2010 Census New Construction
Program in general should be submitted to Arnold A. Jackson, Associate
Director for Decennial Census, U.S. Census Bureau, through one of the
following methods:
FAX: Correspondence may be faxed to (301) 763-8867.
E-mail: Correspondence may be e-mailed to
[email protected].
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information about the
Census Bureau's 2010 Census New Construction Program, contact Timothy
F. Trainor, Chief, Geography Division, U.S. Census Bureau, through one
of the following methods:
FAX: Correspondence may be faxed to (301) 763-4710.
E-mail: Correspondence may be e-mailed to
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: As part of its objective to produce a
complete and accurate population count, the Census Bureau will
implement the 2010 Decennial Census New Construction Program to capture
the addresses of newly constructed housing units. Specifically, the
purpose of this program is to utilize tribal and local knowledge of
recent and in-progress construction to identify, and add to the census
address list, the addresses for housing units not yet existent at the
time of the Address Canvassing Operation. Address Canvassing was a
nationwide check of addresses that was completed during the spring/
summer of 2009 in which the Census Bureau verified the census address
list that will be used to deliver questionnaires for the 2010 Decennial
Census. During address canvassing, census workers systematically
canvassed all census blocks looking for living quarters and added,
deleted, and corrected entries on the census address list to ensure its
completeness and accuracy. In order to account for any housing units of
which the construction began after the start of the Address Canvassing
Operation, the Census Bureau will implement the New Construction
Program.
The 2010 Decennial Census New Construction Program is conducted by
the Census Bureau under the authority of Title 13, United States Code,
Section 141(a), and is separate and distinct from the Local Update of
Census Addresses Program (see 73 FR 12369) in that its only purpose is
to identify addresses for housing units newly constructed (starting in
March 2009) that are expected to be closed to the elements (final roof,
windows, and doors) by Census Day, April 1, 2010. The New Construction
Program was conducted for the first time as part of Census 2000.
Summary of Comments Received in Response to the Proposed New
Construction Program
On July 1, 2009, the Census Bureau issued a Federal Register notice
(74 FR
[[Page 56821]]
31405) requesting comments on the proposed 2010 Census New Construction
Program. Four sets of comments on the proposal were received during the
comment period. This notice issues final procedures that incorporate
changes made as a result of the comments received.
A summary of the public comments and the response of the Census
Bureau are provided below:
Commenter 1. The commenter suggested that the Census Bureau state
its support for local governments to receive external assistance from
nonprofit organizations or commercial firms in the form of
philanthropic support and external expertise to participate fully in
the New Construction Program. Commenter 1 also recommended that the New
Construction Program be expanded to include all additional addresses
that may be captured from commercially available sources (rather than
confined to those newly constructed after the Address Canvassing
Operation) OR that communities determined to be hard-to-count as
determined by the Census 2000 Tract Level Planning Database be allowed
to submit additional addresses sourced from commercial data for review
in a separate program.
Response 1. The Census Bureau acknowledges the first suggestion and
encourages governmental participants to leverage any non-governmental
partnerships that will help them identify the address for newly
constructed housing units. The Census Bureau did not adopt the second
recommendation regarding which addresses to accept in the New
Construction Program or the proposed separate new program for the final
procedures. The Census Bureau leaves it to New Construction Program
participants to identify newly constructed addresses from any source
available, commercial or administrative. The Census Bureau confines the
New Construction Program to the submission of newly constructed
addresses (rather than allowing the submission of any address that may
have been missed in the LUCA Program) because after the review phase of
the LUCA Program, the Census Bureau conducted a nationwide field check
of the census address list in the Address Canvassing Operation to bring
the list up to date from the time the LUCA Program ended. To allow
participants (who do not have access to the census address list as part
of the New Construction Program) to add any address regardless of its
construction date increases the risk of address duplication and costly
and unnecessary field work. The successive operations to assure the
completeness of the census address list (the LUCA Program, Address
Canvassing, the New Construction Program, updates from the United
States Postal Service's list of delivery addresses close to Census Day,
and an address list update at the time of questionnaire delivery for
areas where census staff deliver the questionnaires) in combination are
designed to provide an address list that is as complete and accurate as
possible.
Commenter 2. The commenter recommended that the New Construction
Program be open to state governments in addition to tribal and local
governments.
Response 2. The Census Bureau did not adopt this recommendation for
the final procedures because most state governments are not likely to
have current, on-the-ground knowledge of construction recently
completed or in progress. Nonetheless, local governments wishing to
enlist their state governments to assist are free to do so or can
indicate to the Census Bureau that their New Construction materials
should be sent to a state contact.
Commenter 3. The commenter recommended that New Construction
Program participants be permitted to submit addresses for housing units
constructed prior to March 2009, believing that there is no mechanism
for participants to identify addresses for units constructed after the
end of the LUCA Program but prior to the New Construction Program.
Response 3. The Census Bureau did not accept this recommendation
for the final procedures. In the Address Canvassing Operation,
conducted in the spring and summer of 2009, field staff canvassed
blocks nationwide, adding any addresses that were missing from the
census address list. The New Construction Program is designed to allow
tribal and local governments to identify addresses for housing units
constructed between the end of the Address Canvassing Operation and
Census Day. Governments that participated in the LUCA Program will
receive feedback on the results of the Address Canvassing for their
areas; they may appeal the non-acceptance of any addresses they offered
as adds to the census address list as well as any addresses deleted
from the address list in the Address Canvassing Operation.
Commenter 4. The commenter noted that the proposal for the New
Construction Program lacked a reference to the phenomenon of ``hidden''
or hard-to-find housing units, and that not just governments but other
interested partners should be involved in identifying them.
Response 4. To the extent that the units meet the Census Bureau's
definition for a housing unit\1\ and are in mail-out/mail-back areas,
have locatable city style addresses, and are a result of construction
occurring between March 2009 and April 1, 2010, they can be submitted
as part of the New Construction Program. The Census Bureau encourages
governmental participants to leverage any non-governmental partnerships
that will help them identify the addresses for newly constructed
housing units.
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\1\ A housing unit is a house, an apartment, a mobile home or
trailer, a group of rooms, or a single room occupied as a separate
living quarters, or if vacant, intended for occupancy as separate
living quarters. Separate living quarters are those in which the
occupants live separately from any other individuals in the building
and which have direct access from outside the building or through a
common hall. For vacant units, the criteria of separateness and
direct access are applied to the intended occupants whenever
possible.
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2010 Decennial Census New Construction Program
The 2010 Census New Construction Program is offered to Federally
Recognized American Indian tribal governments with reservations and/or
trust lands and local governments (counties, incorporated places, and
functioning minor civil divisions) that include areas where the Census
Bureau will deliver the census questionnaires by mail. For other areas,
Census Bureau enumerators will hand deliver the census questionnaires
to all housing units in each block, including any newly constructed
units not already on the census address list. Tribal and local
governments that wish to participate in the program will be invited to
submit a list of addresses of newly constructed housing units for
inclusion in the Census Address List. The address list submitted by New
Construction Program participants must only include addresses for
housing units for which construction began during or after March 2009
that are expected to be closed to the elements (final roof, windows,
and doors) by Census Day, April 1, 2010. No street or boundary updates
will be accepted by the New Construction Program.
The New Construction Program will not accept additions of Group
Quarters addresses. Group Quarters addresses are defined as places
where people live or stay in a group living arrangement that is owned
or managed by an entity or organization providing housing and/or
services for the residents. The Census Bureau has programs that are
specifically designed to capture new Group Quarters addresses,
including but not limited to, Group Quarters
[[Page 56822]]
Validation, Group Quarters Advanced Visit, Group Quarters Enumeration,
and the Count Review program.
The maps or spatial data that the Census Bureau provides to New
Construction Program participants are for use as a reference for
assigning census tract and block codes (geocoding) for each submitted
address. The maps are offered in Portable Document Format (PDF) and
spatial data are available from TIGER[supreg] in shapefile format that
requires a Geographic Information System (GIS) software application for
viewing.
For governments choosing maps in PDF, the Census Bureau will
provide Adobe[supreg] Reader[supreg] software to view the PDF maps. For
those participants who choose to use shapefiles, the Census Bureau will
provide the MAF/TIGER Partnership Software (MTPS) to enter addresses
and output them in the prescribed format. The MTPS is an easy-to-use
desktop tool that makes participation easier for governments without a
GIS system. The MTPS also provides map-viewing capability when used
with the shapefiles provided by the Census Bureau. However,
participants may use their own software to create a computer readable
list of addresses in the prescribed format.
The Census Bureau will send out New Construction materials to
registered participants during November 2009 through January 2010. The
PDF package will contain the following:
(1) The New Construction Quick Start Document
(2) The New Construction User Guide
(3) The New Construction Address List Template
(4) Zip Software
(5) CD Readme.txt File
(6) PDF Software (Adobe[supreg] Reader[supreg])
(7) New Construction Map PDFs
The MTPS/Shapefile package will contain the following:
(1) The New Construction Quick Start Document
(2) The New Construction User Guide
(3) The New Construction MTPS User Guide
(4) The New Construction Address List Template
(5) Zip Software
(6) CD Readme.txt File
(7) MTPS Software
(8) Shapefiles
Participants must submit their New Construction address lists to
the Census Bureau within forty-five (45) calendar days after receipt of
the New Construction materials. ``Receipt'' as used herein is defined
as the delivery date reported to the Census Bureau by the delivery
service that delivers the New Construction materials to the eligible
government. The New Construction addresses must be returned in the
Census Bureau's predefined format and each address must be ``geocoded''
or assigned to the census tract and block in which it is located as
shown on the New Construction census maps (PDF or shapefiles).
Files that are submitted in the proper format are compared against
the Census Bureau's Master Address File to check for any addresses
already on the list. The Census Bureau, using the participant supplied
addresses, will visit and attempt to enumerate each newly constructed
housing unit that has been identified as missing from our list. The
census enumeration process will determine the final housing unit status
and population for each new unit.
Classification
Executive Order 12866
This notice has been determined to not be significant under
Executive Order 12866.
Paperwork Reduction Act
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person is required
to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure
to comply with, a collection of information subject to the requirements
of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) unless that collection of
information displays a current, valid Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) control number. In accordance with the PRA, 44 U.S.C., Chapter
35, the Census Bureau obtained clearance for this information
collection in October 2009 under the Generic Clearance for Geographic
Partnership Programs (OMB Control Number 0607-0795, expires on April
30, 2012).
Dated October 27, 2009.
Robert M. Groves,
Director, Bureau of the Census.
[FR Doc. E9-26423 Filed 11-2-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P