Opinion ID: 3011395
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Cumulative Impact of the Project

Text: on the Neighborhood. As noted above, CEQ regulations provide the framework for how cumulative impacts are to be addressed in an EA. When an EA concludes with a FONSI, an agency is required to briefly present why an action will not have a significant impact on the human environment. 40 C.F.R. S 1508.13. CEQ identifies factors that should be considered in determining whether an impact is significant. 40 C.F.R. S 1508.27. Although the impact of a particular project may 17 be inconsequential when considered in isolation, if the cumulative impact of a given project and other planned projects is significant, an applicant can not simply prepare an EA for its project, issue a FONSI, and ignore the overall impact of the project on a particular neighborhood. 40 C.F.R. S 1508.27(b)(7). Thus, CEQ directs agencies to consider: Whether the action is related to other actions with individually insignificant but cumulatively significant impacts. Significance exists if it is reasonable to anticipate a cumulatively significant impact on the environment. Significance cannot be avoided by terming an action temporary or by breaking it down into small component parts. Id. CEQ defines cumulative impact as the impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions regardless of what agency (Federal or non-Federal) or person undertakes such other actions. 40 C.F.R. S 1508.7. Cumulative impacts can result from individually minor but collectively significant actions taking place over a period of time. Id . HUD directs entities conducting environmental reviews to group together and evaluate as a single project all individual activities which are related either on a geographical or functional basis, or are logical parts of composite of contemplated actions. 24 C.F.R. S 58.32(a). In Kleppe v. Sierra Club, 427 U.S. 390 (1976) the Supreme Court addressed the question of when the cumulative impact of other projects must be included in an environmental analysis. The Court stated when several proposals for [ ] actions that will have cumulative or synergistic environmental impact upon a region are pending concurrently before an agency, their environmental consequences must be considered together. Id . at 410. The Court noted however, that the concept of cumulative impact was not intended to expand an inquiry into the realm of the fanciful. The statute, however, speaks solely in terms of proposed actions; it does not require an agency to 18 consider the possible environmental impacts of less imminent actions when preparing the impact statement on proposed actions. Should contemplated action later reach the stage of actual proposals, impact statements on them will take into account the effect of their approval upon the existing environment; and the condition of that environment presumably will reflect earlier proposed actions and their effects. Id. at 410 n.20. In National Wildlife Federation v. FERC, 912 F.2d 1471, 1478 (D.C. Cir. 1990), the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit amplified the holding in Kleppe as follows: Kleppe thus clearly establishes that an EIS need not delve into the possible effects of a hypothetical project, but need only focus on the impact of the particular proposal at issue and other pending or recently approved proposals that might be connected to or act cumulatively with the proposal at issue. In Sierra Club v. Froehike, 534 F.2d 1289, 1297 (8th Cir. 1976), the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit summarized the then existing case law pertaining to segmentation -- another term for expressing the cumulative impact of a project. The court stated: Where it is found that the project before the court is an essentially independent one, an EIS for that project alone has been found sufficient compliance with the act. In such a case there is not irretrievable commitment of resources beyond what is actually expended in an individual project. Similarly, in Webb v. Gorsuch, 699 F.2d 157, 161(4th Cir. 1983), the court concluded: Generally, an administrative agency need consider the impact of other proposed projects when developing an EIS for a pending project only if the projects are so interdependent that it would be unwise or irrational to complete one without the others. That standard was adopted by the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Park County Resource Council v. USDA, 817 F.2d 609, 623 (10th Cir. 1987), overruled on other grounds, Village of Los Ranchos De Albuquerque v. Marsh, 19 956 F.2d 970, 973 (10th Cir. 1992), and Airport Neighbors Alliance v. U.S., 90 F.3d 426, 433 (10th Cir. 1996). In Airport Neighbors Alliance, the court found that the remaining components of the airport's master plan were not so interdependent that it would be unwise or irrational to complete the Runway 321 upgrade without them. Id. Accordingly, the court held that the FAA had not inappropriately ignored cumulative impacts when it failed to analyze extensively the remaining components of the Master Plan in the EA. The court reasoned that,requiring a cumulative EIS analyzing possible future actions postulated in a twenty-year Master Plan that are far from certain would result in a `gross misallocation of resources, would trivialize NEPA and would diminish its utility in providing useful environmental analysis for major federal actions that truly affect the environment.'  Id. at 431 (quoting Park County, 817 F.2d at 623). Similarly, under circumstances analogous to those presented here, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit concluded that the City of New Orleans appropriately limited its environmental review under the UDAG program to a proposed hotel, retail and parking development. Vieux Carre Property Owners v. Pierce, 719 F.2d 1272 (5th Cir. 1983). The court concluded that other phases in the City's Master Plan for the area affected by the UDAG grant project (Phases III through V) were indefinite and speculative in nature; [as] no final plans nor private funding commitments exist as to Phases III through V, and no further design work or land acquisition as to Phases IV and V has been performed since 1978. Id. at 1275. Although we realize that some courts have adopted a more expansive approach to requiring a UDAG applicant to determine cumulative impact, we agree with the holding in Webb that such a determination must be governed by considerations of whether other projects are so interdependent that it would be unwise or irrational to complete one without the others.8 _________________________________________________________________ 8. See LaFlamme v. FERC, 852 F.2d 389 (9th Cir. 1988). There, the court concluded that the applicant's finding of no potential for adverse cumulative impact on the environment could not be sustained because the applicant [had] not considered the impact that all past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future projects may have on the basin's resources, . . .. Id. at 402. 20 Webb, at 161. However, we believe that a court must also consider the likelihood that a given project will be constructed along with the interdependence of other projects. The more certain it is that a given project will be completed, the more reasonable it is to require a UDAG applicant to consider the cumulative impact of that project and the applicant's project in determining the applicant's obligations under the applicable regulations. The Residents contend that the City's EA was deficient because the City did not consider the impact of future development that had been identified in several planning documents9 including a proposedmega entertainment complex planned at Penn's Landing. However, projects that the City has merely proposed in planning documents are not sufficiently concrete to warrant inclusion in the EA for the hotel/parking garage project at issue here. The district court correctly focused upon the likelihood that the other projects will be completed as well as the interdependence of the hotel/parking-garage and those other projects. In doing so it stated: First, the Court notes that the evidence does not suggest that the City could not sever any connection between the hotel and other projects without destroying the proposed action's functionality. Second, plaintiffs do not point to any evidence in the administrative record that realization of the future plans was, indeed, expected to materialize. NEPA only requires consideration of the cumulative impact of proposed, and not merely contemplated future actions. Where future development is unlikely or difficult to anticipate there is no need to study cumulative impacts. Thus, the Court concludes that based on the record, the City was not required to conduct a cumulative impact analysis as part of the EA. _________________________________________________________________ 9. The Residents point to six plans referenced by the City in its environmental assessment: the Comprehensive Land Use Plan; the Plan for Center City; the Penn's Landing Master Plan; the Penn's Landing Development Plan; the Central Riverfront District Plan; and the River Walk Plan. 21 20 F. Supp. 2d at 870 (citations and internal quotations omitted). Although an EA may need to include a cumulative impact analysis even if it is practical to sever any connection between a project and other projects if it is sufficiently certain that such other projects will be constructed, we nevertheless agree with the district court's analysis here.10 It is not at all certain that the proposed mega entertainment complex or any of the projects included in the planning documents will ever be completed. Moreover, even if the Residents could establish that these projects were going to be completed, that finding would not undermine the City's FONSI because the district court concluded that those projects and the hotel/parking garage are not sufficiently interdependent. The success of a hotel and parking garage in the Penn's Landing is not tied to construction of an entertainment complex. Moreover, plans for the Penn's Landing area appear to change regularly. Given the circumstances here, the City should not be required to evaluate and reevaluate the environmental impacts of such projects as part of the EA for this UDAG application with every change in the plans for development of Penn's Landing no matter how tenuous the contemplated project may be.