Action
Notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.
Summary
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) intend to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Sound Transit will ensure that the EIS also satisfies the requirements of the Washington State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). The FTA will be the NEPA lead agency. Sound Transit will be the SEPA lead agency. The EIS will evaluate the Tacoma-Lakewood Commuter Rail Project, including station locations, a light maintenance and layover facility location, park-and-ride facility alternatives, and track design variations along an approximately 11-mile long corridor between Tacoma and just south of Lakewood, Washington. The project will generally be located in existing Burlington Northern Santa FE Railway (BNSF) and Tacoma Eastern (TE) rights-of-way. A short new rail connection will be needed to connect the BNSF and TE lines proposed to the used for the project. The EIS will evaluate route alternatives for this new at-grade track, which will be approximately 0.8 miles long. The EIS will evaluate the no-build alternative and any new reasonable alternatives within the corridor generated through the scoping process. Corridor alternatives were evaluated in a SEPA plan-level EIS (1993) and in a federally required Major Investment Study (1997). The proposed Commuter Rail Project is intended to provide peak-hour commuter rail service between Tacoma and Lakewood, key activity centers along the corridor. The commuter rail line will extend the proposed Tacoma-Seattle commuter rail service. It will connect to the Tacoma Light Rail Transit line. It will also connect ultimately, with the proposed Central Light Rail Transit line between SeaTac and Seattle, Washington. The project was originally the subject of a proposed environmental assessment (EA) under NEPA. FTA and Sound Transit determined that preparation of a NEPA EIS is appropriate after reviewing information developed through the public involvement and preliminary environmental review processes. The Commuter Rail facility at the Tacoma Dome Station was evaluated in a separate EA for which a Finding of No Significant Impact was issued on April 6, 1999. The EIS also will evaluate alternatives and impacts for a related Sound Transit project to provide additional parking capacity in the vicinity of, or at the existing, SR512 Park-and-Ride Lot in Lakewood. Scoping will be accomplished through correspondence with interested persons, organizations, and federal, state, regional and local agencies. A public scoping meeting will be held. See DATES below for details.