Opinion ID: 162578
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Failure to Consider Impacts to SLC

Text: 64 Appellants assert that the FEIS is inadequate under NEPA because it did not consider the impact construction of the Legacy Parkway will have on SLC. Appellants' brief contains a list of twelve alleged impacts to SLC that the FEIS failed to consider. Aplt. Br. at 55. As noted above, issues will be deemed waived if they are not adequately briefed. Phillips, 956 F.2d at 954. We do not consider merely including an issue within a list to be adequate briefing. Therefore, we will consider only those impacts Appellants briefed which include (1) the FEIS's failure to consider whether the proposed Legacy Parkway is consistent with the SLC Transportation Master Plan, (2) the FEIS's failure to analyze the impact increased auto congestion will have on SLC, and (3) the FEIS's failure to consider the social and economic impacts that increased congestion will have on SLC. 65 The Agencies responded on at least one occasion to comments expressing concern about impacts on SLC from the construction of the Legacy Parkway by stating that the purpose of the Legacy Parkway was not to bring more cars to SLC. IV Aplee. App. at 1314.1. As the Appellants point out in their brief, purpose and intent respecting a project's impacts are irrelevant. Agencies must evaluate all reasonably foreseeable project impacts regardless of whether they are intentional. Aplt. Br. at 57. See also 40 C.F.R. §§ 1502.16(b), 1508.8(b). 66
NEPA regulations require that: 67 To better integrate environmental impact statements into State or local planning processes, statements shall discuss any inconsistency of a proposed action with any approved State or local plan and laws ... [w]here an inconsistency exists, the statement should describe the extent to which the agency would reconcile its proposed action with the plan or law. 68 40 C.F.R. § 1506.2(d). The Appellants charge that the Agencies did not discuss the inconsistency between the SLC Transportation Master Plan and the Legacy Parkway and did not describe the extent to which the Agencies would reconcile the proposed action with the plan. See III Aplt.App. 829. The Appellants based their assertion of inconsistency on the fact that the SLC Transportation Master Plan indicated that the City had shifted priorities to mass transit and multiple forms of transportation and away from increasing road capacity and meeting the needs of the single-occupant automobile. Aplt. Br. at 56. 69 The Agencies reviewed and the FEIS describes eight different SLC transportation plans, including the SLC Transportation Master Plan of 1996. I Aplee. App. at 229; see also I Aplee. App. 451. Many of these plans anticipate an increase in travel demand in SLC, and some specifically recommend construction of a new north-south highway. Aplee. App. at 231. Furthermore, a map from the SLC Transportation Master Plan of 1996 shows a proposed West Davis Highway running north from SLC and located west of I-15. IV Aplee. App. at 1555. The Appellants have not cited any place in the SLC Transportation Master Plan where all new road construction was opposed. Shifting priorities and opposing any and all new construction are different things. Therefore, the EIS is not inadequate on this basis. We find that the FEIS's apparent conclusion that the Legacy Parkway project was not inconsistent with SLC's plans does not render the FEIS inadequate. 70
71 Appellants assert that the FEIS failed to discuss the impact increased auto congestion caused by construction of the Legacy Parkway will have on parking, arterial and side streets, and pedestrian and bicycle safety in SLC. The Agencies only have a duty to discuss in the FEIS impacts that are reasonably foreseeable. Even as to impacts that are sufficiently likely to occur such that they are reasonably foreseeable and merit inclusion, the FEIS need only furnish such information as appears to be reasonably necessary under the circumstances for evaluation of the project. Sierra Club v. Marsh, 976 F.2d 763, 767 (1st Cir.1992). See also Izaak Walton League of Am. v. Marsh, 655 F.2d 346, 377 (D.C.Cir.1981) (NEPA does not require federal agencies to examine every possible environmental consequence. Detailed analysis is required only where impacts are likely.). 72 Both the Agencies' comments and the FEIS note that with or without the Legacy Parkway there will be a substantial increase in travel demand in SLC by 2020. The FEIS calculated the percentage of the total demand in 2020 that will be caused by the construction of the Legacy Parkway at 3.3 percent or less. I Aplee. App. at 258-59. The 3.3 percent estimate includes all traffic in both directions. When adjusted for the directional split, the fact is that while a portion of the traffic is headed in the peak direction, the other portion is traveling in the off-peak direction, and only 1.98 percent of the travel demand going to SLC in 2020 will be caused by the construction of the Legacy Parkway. While the Appellants still consider this to be a significant amount, the Agencies reasonably concluded that this amount was too small for its inclusion in the FEIS to be reasonably necessary under the circumstances for evaluation of the project. Sierra Club, 976 F.2d at 767. 73
74 As discussed above, the Agencies reasonably concluded that construction of the Legacy Parkway would not increase congestion in SLC sufficiently to merit inclusions in the FEIS. Therefore, the failure to consider the social and economic impacts of this insignificant increase does not render the EIS inadequate. 75 H. Failure to Consider Growth and Land Use Impacts on Areas North of the Legacy Parkway 76 Appellants take issue with the FEIS's failure to consider the growth and land use impacts construction of the Legacy Parkway will have on the areas north of the project area. To show that this omission was unreasonable and in violation of NEPA, they quote from an undated, untitled, anonymous document which states It is more likely that the [Legacy Parkway and I-15] projects will influence growth and property build-out in areas further north of the projects [than in the project corridor]. III Aplt.App. at 1118. In contrast, the FEIS states that it is expected that growth patterns and planned land use north of the Legacy Parkway would not change as a result of building the Legacy Parkway. I Aplee. App. at 443. Additionally, the Appellants note that, according to the minutes of the April 26, 2000 Federal Agency Meeting to Review FEIS Comments, while discussing Issue 12: land use discussion between the build and no-build scenarios, the EPA expressed more concern about growth and land use impacts caused by the construction on the area north of the project than on the project area. III Aplt.App. at 1048. 77 First, Appellants' document shows only that at some unknown point in the process an unknown participant felt that the Legacy and I-15 projects were more likely to cause growth and land use impacts north of the project area than within the project area. Differences of opinion during the process between some participants does not by itself make the final conclusion of the Agencies unreasonable. Second, the NEPA requires Agencies to consider and respond to the comments of other agencies, not agree with them. Custer County, 256 F.3d at 1038 (citing 40 C.F.R. § 1503.4). The Appellees counter that at an April 27, 2000 meeting, while discussing Issue 12: discussion of land use impacts between the no-build and build scenarios, the timing of development for lands north of the study area was discussed and revisions to the FEIS were made. IV Aplee. App. at 1194, 1205. Additionally, at a June 8, 2000 meeting which the EPA attended, Issue 12 was again discussed and the issue was resolved. IV Aplee. App. at 1255. The FEIS is not inadequate on this basis.