Opinion ID: 3047827
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Incorporation of Local Planning Documents

Text: Citizens argues that it was improper of FHWA to rely upon FDOT’s Feasibility Study and Corridor Report when preparing the FEIS. However, circuit precedent holds that incorporation of local planning documents is permissible and that references to such documents can satisfy the requirements of NEPA. See Piedmont Heights Civic Club, Inc. v. Moreland, 637 F.2d 430, 438 (5th Cir. Unit B Feb. 1981) (“The reference to the [regional planning document] contained in the . . . EISs was sufficient to satisfy the procedural and substantive requirements of 9 NEPA.”).2 Furthermore, the Council on Environmental Quality Guidelines instruct that “[a]gencies shall incorporate material into an environmental impact statement by reference,” 40 C.F.R. § 1502.21 (emphasis added), and encourage joint federal and local action, see 40 C.F.R. § 1502.5(b). Citizens also contends that use of the local planning documents was impermissible because FHWA failed to participate in the preparation of the documents. In support of its position, Citizens points to 23 C.F.R. § 771.109(c)(5), which states that a local agency “may prepare the EIS and other environmental review documents with the Administration furnishing guidance, participating in the preparation, and independently evaluating the document.” However, the Feasibility Study and the Corridor Report are not NEPA environmental review documents; they are support documents that were referenced in an environmental review document: the FEIS. See 23 C.F.R. § 771.111(a)(2). “Publicly available documents . . . produced by, or in support of, the transportation planning process . . . may be incorporated directly or by reference into subsequent NEPA documents” and require review by the FHWA 2 In Piedmont Heights, the court explained that because the regional planning documents “were readily available to the public,” the agency was “not required to reiterate facts and figures” already made public. 637 F.2d at 438. Following this reasoning, because Appellees made the Feasibility Study and Corridor Report available to the public, they were able to satisfy their NEPA obligations by incorporating those documents by reference rather than republishing the already-public information. 10 only “as appropriate.” 23 § C.F.R. 450.212(b). We find no error in FHWA’s incorporation of the local planning documents in the FEIS.