Policy and Planning
Committee
To: Members, APTA Policy and Planning Committee
From: Donald Emerson, Chair
Date: November 6, 2002
Subject: "Nomination of High-Priority Transit Projects for Environmental Streamlining Task Force Review"
On September 18, 2002, President Bush signed Executive Order 13274, "Environmental Stewardship and Transportation Infrastructure Project Reviews." This Executive Order directs federal agencies to enhance environmental stewardship and to streamline the decision-making process in connection with transportation projects. It also establishes an interagency Task Force to expedite the environmental review of selected, high priority transportation projects, as well as to develop environmental stewardship and streamlining procedures to benefit all transportation projects.
On October 31, 2002, the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) announced an initial list of seven transportation high priority projects. The Department has invited Governors, metropolitan planning organizations, and airport proprietors to nominate additional high priority projects by November 12, 2002. U.S. DOT expects to announce the first full list of high priority projects in December 2002. While the Department will continue to accept forms after this date, only forms received by November 12th are assured of being considered for the December selections. The projects must meet three criteria. They must:
- be of national or regional importance;
- have a high level of support among State and local elected officials; and
- be experiencing or anticipating undue delay due to Federal agency review or coordination.
U.S. DOT and stakeholder organizations are developing additional considerations for selecting highway, aviation and transit projects. All nominated projects will be held in a Project Review Register, from which future selections will be made for the "rolling" list of high priority projects. The date of U.S. DOT’s next call for nominations has not yet been determined and probably will not be in the near future.
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) encourages the nomination of any transit project for the high priority list as long as it meets the criteria described above. FTA is especially interested in:
- Joint FTA/FHWA projects that explore innovative approaches to streamlining;
- Planning-level Alternative Analyses that link planning and environmental procedures; and
- Meritorious New Starts projects experiencing or anticipating undue delays due to Federal agency review or coordination.
If you are planning or developing projects that would be appropriate for the high-priority list, you should request that your Governor or metropolitan planning organization include those projects among the nominations they submit to U.S. DOT. Information on the implementation of the Executive Order, including the nomination form, is at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/stewardshipeo/.
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