U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration

Subject: ACTION: Environmental Stewardship and Environmental Streamlining Date: October 11, 2002 From: Mary E. Peters Administrator Reply to: Attn. of: HEPE To: Associate Administrators Division Administrators Federal Lands Highway Division Engineers As you are aware, on September 18, 2002, President Bush signed Executive Order 13274, titled Environmental Stewardship and Transportation Infrastructure Project Reviews, which emphasizes the importance of expedited transportation project delivery while being good stewards of the environment. Concurrently, Federal Transit Administrator Jenna Dorn and I issued notices in the Federal Register withdrawing proposed modifications to rules for transportation planning and National Environmental Policy Act and related procedures. In light of these important events, and given FHWA's considerable progress in establishing a strategy for implementing our vital few goal for environmental stewardship and environmental streamlining, your personal involvement is critical in advancing our environmental protection and program delivery agenda. It is a top priority for me and I know I can count on your efforts to make this program goal a success. As we move forward, we need to be clear about our message and our direction both within the agency and to our State, Federal and public partners: we are not making a choice between advancing transportation improvements in a timely manner and being good stewards of the human and natural environment; we must do both. The executive order emphasizes both, and so do FHWA's strategies for achieving our vital few goal for environmental stewardship and environmental streamlining. The executive order complements and reinforces the strategic direction that FHWA established in our vital few goal effort. At the core of our effort is a prominent leadership role by FHWA to coordinate transportation and environmental decisionmaking among many Federal agencies and with other units of government, both at the project level and the policy level. I know that each of you have charted in your unit's performance plan the specific actions that you and your staff will take in the new fiscal year to implement this environmental leadership vision for FHWA. Collectively, the unit plans will significantly advance the goals of the Executive Order. Your diligence in assuring that the performance plan is fully accomplished is critical to our success. The President's decision to issue this Executive Order provides us all with a new opportunity to engage our colleagues in other Federal agencies and in State, local, and tribal governments in enhancing how we do business so that transportation improvements are environmentally responsible and delivered in a timely fashion. I look forward to learning about your achievements from across the country in achieving our goals in this challenging area. cc: Director of Field Services Executive Order 13274 Full Document

The following is information developed and compiled by the FHWA and its partners to assist in strengthening planning and environment linkages, including:

• The benefits of using a Planning and Environment Linkages approach.
• Some first steps for getting started, including a list of activities to help you begin.
• Effective Practices from states nationwide, including case studies and FHWA-sponsored Workshops
• Additional resources that are related to planning and environment linkages.
• Relevant SAFETEA-LU provisions.
• Contacts to receive more information from FHWA.

Benefits of Planning and Environment Linkages

State and local agencies can achieve significant benefits by incorporating environmental and community values into transportation decisions early in planning and carrying these considerations through project development and delivery. Benefits include:

• Relationship-building benefits: By enhancing inter-agency participation and coordination efforts and procedures, transportation planning agencies can establish more positive working relationships with resource agencies and the public.
• Process efficiency benefits: Improvements to inter-agency relationships may help to resolve differences on key issues as transportation programs and projects move from planning to design and implementation. Conducting some analysis at the planning stage can reduce duplication of work, leading to reductions in costs and time requirements, thus moving through the project development process faster and with fewer issues.
• On-the-ground outcome benefits: When transportation agencies conduct planning activities equipped with information about resource considerations and in coordination with resource agencies and the public, they are better able to conceive transportation programs and projects that serve the community's transportation needs more effectively. This leads to smaller negative impacts, and incorporates more effective environmental stewardship.

What is a Planning and
Environment Linkage?

Planning and Environment Linkages represent an approach to transportation decision-making that considers environmental, community, and economic goals early in the planning stage and carries them through project development, design, and construction. This can lead to a seamless decision-making process that minimizes duplication of effort, promotes environmental stewardship, and reduces delays in project implementation.

Who is Involved?

This approach encourages internal and external communication and coordination throughout the decision-making process — between transportation staff responsible for planning and project development, between transportation agencies and resource agencies, and between agencies and the public. It also enables agencies to take a broader, ecosystem-scale perspective instead of one that looks only at individual projects.

Getting Started 

A lot can be done to implement Planning and Environment Linkages. To apply the Planning and Environment Linkages approach, multiple activities can be undertaken to improve different stages of the transportation decisionmaking process. Some activities will emphasize internal integration, in which the various transportation development functions are reconfigured to work better together. Others will emphasize external integration, in which coordination between transportation, resource, and land management agency processes is heightened. To learn more about Implementation activities, and indicators to help guide implementation, visit the Implementation page.

Below are a number of steps you can take to begin integrating planning and environmental processes in your area:

• Read about Planning and Environment Linkages on this website and from additional resources.
• Convene a Linking Planning and NEPA workshop in your state. These workshops are designed to help initiate dialogue and provide information about evolving transportation decision-making processes. If your state is interested in participating in a workshop, contact Chester Fung at chester.fung@dot.gov or Michael Culp at michael.culp@dot.gov for more details.
• Get trained on Planning and Environment Linkages concepts. Relevant training courses include:
  • Linking Conservation and Transportation Planning Workshop — The FHWA Project Development and Environmental Review Office, NatureServe, and Defenders of Wildlife are hosting workshops to improve linkages between conservation and transportation planning.
  • FHWA's GIS for Environmental Streamlining and Stewardship (GIS4EST) Workshop — For more information contact Aung Gye
  • The Conservation Fund's Green Infrastructure Course — Visit www.greeninfrastructure.net (see Events Section) or contact Kris Hoellen at khoellen@conservationfund.org.
• Make a list of specific Planning and Environment Linkages implementation activities that your agency and/or partner agencies are undertaking or would like to pursue.

Effective Practices

On this page you will find information describing the experiences of those who have been successful in improving Planning and Environment Linkages in their agencies. In particular, this page provides:

• Information on activities occurring in states that have participated in FHWA's Linking Planning and NEPA Workshops. The Workshops are designed to help initiate dialogue among agencies in a state and to help these agencies identify opportunities to improve linkages.
• Case studies of innovative practices in strengthening Planning and Environment Linkages conducted in states across the nation.
  • View the PEL case studies presented at the 2006 Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) Annual Conference, November 2006
  • Read the National Policy Consensus Center's Report Transportation Collaboration in the States, June 2006
• Materials from an Environment Workshop on how to strengthen linkages between environment and metropolitan planning at the Transportation Research Board MPOs Present and Future Conference in August 2006
• Other innovative practices in improving the environmental process

Linking Planning and NEPA Workshops

Host a Workshop!

If your state or area has not yet participated in these free workshops and would like to, or if a workshop has been held in your area but a follow-up session is desired, please contact Chester Fung at chester.fung@dot.gov or Michael Culp at michael.culp@dot.gov.

FHWA's Linking Planning and NEPA Workshops are designed to foster fundamental change in the culture that underlies transportation planning and project development - leading to better planning and decisionmaking, improved environmental stewardship, and streamlined delivery of transportation projects. The Linking Planning and NEPA workshop series is aimed at the U.S. DOT modal administrations, State DOTs, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, transit operators, and State and Federal resource agencies.

The workshops are provided in two parts: a one-day Executive Session for senior executives; and a three-day Managers Workshop for key managers who lead transportation planning and project development studies. Thus far, a total of 21 states have participated in the workshops, beginning in Fiscal Year 2003, and with more states scheduled each year. The following items provide more information on these previously held workshops.

State Action Plans

Participants developed Action Plans as a key workshop product. These Action Plans identify opportunities for better integration within the decisionmaking process and activities that the State DOT and its partners can take to achieve stronger linkages between planning and NEPA. State Action Plans are living documents; many State DOTs have re-evaluated and updated their Action Plans to reflect changing agency needs or requirements. Click on a shaded state below to view that state's Action Plan.

States with Linking Planning and NEPA Action Plans

Arkansas | Georgia | Idaho | Maine | Minnesota | Missouri | New Mexico | Pennsylvania | South Carolina | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Wisconsin

Workshop Progress Reports

To maintain momentum on Linking Planning and NEPA initiatives and identify further opportunities for FHWA assistance, the FHWA's Volpe Center has been conducting semi-annual interviews with workshop participants. Common themes, innovative initiatives, and state recommendations for FHWA assistance have been summarized in the Progress Reports listed below. Note that some activities may have changed since these reports, so please contact individual states for more information related to their current efforts.

• Progress Report #1, Fiscal Year 2005, Quarter 4 Activities
• Progress Report #2, Fiscal Year 2006, Quarter 1 Activities
• Progress Report #3, Fiscal Year 2006, Quarters 2 and 3 Activities

Case Studies of Innovative Practices

Each of the following case studies summarizes the experiences of a state or metropolitan area that decided to change its approach to conducting planning and environmental processes. Focusing on the process of change, the case studies summarize why and how change was achieved, some of the challenges encountered, and a few lessons learned. A brief summary of each case study is provided below. Click on the title to view the complete report.

The Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT) Efficient Transportation Decision-Making Process (ETDM) links land use, transportation, and environmental resource planning initiatives through early, interactive agency and community involvement. Key features of ETDM include forming Environmental Technical Advisory Teams (ETAT) and developing an Internet-accessible GIS Environmental Screening Tool. The GIS tool is used to identify critical environmental and cultural issues early, involve resource agencies and the public in the transportation planning process, supply the necessary data for informed decision-making, and decrease the time and cost associated with project development and permitting.

Indiana's Streamlined EIS Procedures
In 2001, the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) adopted new streamlined procedures for planning and environmental analysis. The "one decision-making process" was developed to eliminate the duplication of activities between planning studies and the subsequent environmental analysis carried out under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and primarily for projects that require preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement.

Maine's Integrated Transportation Decision-Making (ITD) Process
Maine's Integrated Transportation Decision-Making (ITD) process integrates the requirements of NEPA, Maine's Sensible Transportation Policy Act, and the Corps of Engineers' Highway Methodology for Section 404. Included within the ITD are a 10-step process, reorganization of the department, a programmatic Categorical Exclusion process, and monthly meetings with resource agencies.

Mid-Atlantic Transportation and Environment (MATE) Task Force
The Mid-Atlantic Transportation and Environment (MATE) Task Force was formed of State and Federal transportation and environmental agencies from the Mid-Atlantic Region (including Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia) in order to develop a systematic approach to address the streamlining provisions set forth in TEA-21, to improve communication and cooperation between the transportation and environmental agencies. The task force developed an 11-step process framework that is specific enough to be effectively implemented, but flexible enough for states to fit individual project development processes into its framework.

Missouri's I-70 Tiered EIS Process
In January 2000, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) initiated the I-70 Improvement Study to identify strategies to address the long-term needs of the corridor. MoDOT, along with the FHWA, decided to use tiering to conduct the planning and the NEPA activities to help expedite the study process.

North Carolina's Process Improvement Initiatives
North Carolina's Process Improvement Initiatives are multi-agency efforts to improve and streamline the state's planning and project development process. Both the Permitting Process Improvement Initiative and the Mitigation Process Improvement Initiative involved an analysis of existing processes, identification of trouble spots, and process redesign to provide better environmental quality.

Oregon's Collaborative Environmental and Transportation Agreement on Streamlining (CETAS)
The goal of Oregon's Collaborative Environmental and Transportation Agreement on Streamlining (CETAS) is to identify and implement collaborative opportunities through environmental stewardship, while providing a safe and efficient transportation system. Members of CETAS have been meeting regularly since June 1999 to: develop alternatives to project-by-project wetlands mitigation and endangered species habitat protection; review and discuss the current list of potential transportation projects; and identify potential environmental stewardship issues and how to best resolve them.

Riverside County Integrated Project (RCIP)
Riverside County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, north of Orange County and east of Los Angeles County, and its population is expected to double to 3 million by 2020. The Riverside County Integrated Project (RCIP) is an ongoing planning study to integrate all aspects of land use, transportation, and conservation planning and implementation in order to develop a comprehensive vision plan for the County's future. The three major components of the RCIP include: Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan; an updated General Plan; and the Community and Environmental Transportation Acceptability Process.

Washington DOT's I-405 Corridor Program
The I-405 Corridor Program was coordinated by Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), FTA, FHWA, King County, and Sound Transit, the regional transit agency. The intent was to combine planning for corridor-wide transit and highway improvements with the preparation of a "programmatic" or first-tier EIS, meeting requirements both for NEPA and for SEPA (the Washington State Environmental Policy Act).

Other case studies and reports that provide useful information include:

PEL Case Studies presented at the 2006 Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) Annual Conference (text version)
This presentation highlights Planning and Environment Linkage tools and activities in Pennsylvania, Sacramento, Southeastern Wisconsin, and Houston.

Transportation Collaboration in the States, June 2006
This report by the National Policy Consensus Center describes the results of interviews with state officials and other stakeholders during site visits to four states: Massachusetts, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia. The report focuses on four areas of interest: (1) issues, barriers and obstacles to transportation planning and project development; (2) current communication and coordination methods; (3) use of collaborative approaches; and (4) future opportunities for collaboration and training, and also identifies recurring issues faced by states in undertaking collaborative work and recommended next steps.