Opinion ID: 162578
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Impact Increased Auto Congestion will have on SLC

Text: 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