Concerned Citizens Coalition v. Federal Highway
| Decision Date | 08 August 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV.A.6:04 CV 329.,CIV.A.6:04 CV 329. |
| Citation | 330 F.Supp.2d 787 |
| Parties | CONCERNED CITIZENS COALITION v. FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Louisiana |
Karla Ann Raettig, Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, New Orleans, LA, for Concerned Citizens Coalition, Plaintiff.
James L. Nelson, U.S. Attorneys Office, Baton Rouge, LA, Janice E. Hebert, U.S. Attorneys Office, Lafayette, LA, John J. Gaupp, U.S. Attorneys Office, Baton Rouge, LA, Linda J. Amidon, Fed. Hwy. Admin, Michelle O. Sayyar, Fed. Hwy. Admin., Atlanta, GA, for Federal Highway Administration, Defendant.
MEMORANDUM RULING AND JUDGMENT
Defendant Federal Highway Administration ("FHWA") moves for summary judgment on the grounds that it has complied with federal law in reaching its decision to build an elevated expressway through Lafayette, Louisiana. [Rec. Doc. 13]. Defendant seeks dismissal of plaintiff's complaint. Plaintiff Concerned Citizens Coalition has filed a cross-motion for summary judgment [Rec. Doc. 16], seeking declaratory relief and to enjoin the project's developers from continuing with construction of the project. Plaintiff has submitted a memorandum in opposition to defendant's motion [Rec. Doc. 24] and defendant has submitted a memorandum in response to plaintiff's cross-motion [Rec. Doc. 23], to which plaintiff has submitted a reply. [Rec. Doc. 29]. For the following reasons, plaintiff's motion for summary judgment will be denied, and defendant's motion for summary judgment will be granted.
On April 15, 2003, plaintiff Concerned Citizens Coalition filed suit against the Federal Highway Administration ("FHWA") in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, seeking declaratory relief and a permanent injunction halting the construction of the proposed I-49 Connector project in Lafayette, Louisiana. R. 1, ¶ 1-12. The suit was transferred to the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on January 27, 2004. R. 30. Plaintiff is a Louisiana non-profit corporation comprised of residents of Lafayette, Louisiana, whose stated purpose is to "protect and improve the quality of its members' environment and neighborhoods, including Sterling Grove and the other neighborhoods that will be adjacent to the I-49 Connector." R. 1, ¶ 5. Defendant Federal Highway Administration is an agency of the federal government which administers federal aid to the states for the construction of highway projects, and as such is the lead agency in developing the I-49 Connector.1 Id.
The subject of this action is the I-49 Connector Project, hereinafter "the project", which, if constructed, would consist of approximately five miles of new freeway in Lafayette, Louisiana, lying generally along the existing Evangeline Thruway Corridor. See Final Environmental Impact Statement ("FEIS"), Vol. I. The project would run from just south of the Lafayette Regional Airport, continuing north to the southern terminus of the I-49 at the I-49/I-10 exchange. Id., at S-1. The project has been under consideration since 1987, when Congress authorized and funded a study of a highway project designed to provide access between an interstate route and a federal-aid highway on the primary system in Lafayette. Id. In 1992, the FHWA, in concert with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development ("LaDOTD"), circulated a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that proposed constructing a highway along the U.S. 90/U.S. 167 Evangeline Thruway Corridor.2 Id.
Subsequently, the Lafayette Areawide Planning Commission, a municipal planning agency, developed a study known as the "Lafayette North-South Corridor Study Path to Progress." FHWA Record of Decision ("ROD"), at A-59. The "Path to Progress Study" evaluated four alternative freeway corridors as well as a no-build alternative, and ultimately recommended a freeway on the Evangeline Corridor in lieu of several by-pass alignments, which were rejected on the basis that they did not achieve the goal of improving traffic flow in the vicinity of the Evangeline Thruway. Id. In 1997, the FHWA and the LaDOTD began a second draft Environmental Impact Study. The EIS identified the need for and purpose of the project as follows:
Link the interstates 1-49 and 1-10 north of Lafayette to U.S. 90 and U.S. 67 with full freeway services to the Lafayette Regional Airport and the downtown multimodal transit center, Beaver Park, the CBD [Central Business District], University Avenue Extension and Verot School Road Extension.
Relieve existing and projected traffic in existing Evangeline Thruway Corridor.
Meet long standing regional plans which have identified a need for a freeway in the Evangeline Thruway Corridor.
Meet intent of original enabling federal legislation for project.
Improve highway safety in the Corridor.
Improve hurricane evacuation by eliminating the choke point on U.S. 90 in Lafayette.
Increase mobility in the capacity of the Evangeline Thruway Corridor which will attract traffic from other congested roads, thus improving mobility in the region.
The second draft EIS included a revised set of six alignment alternatives. The six alternatives included four alignments retained from the 1991 DEIS, including four variations on an Evangeline Thruway alignment, as well as a no-build alternative. FEIS, at 2-3.3 The two below-grade depressed alignments from the DEIS were rejected on the basis of hydraulic unfeasibility, and replaced with two "selected overpass" alternatives. Id. All six alternatives followed the same general path along the Evangeline Thruway alignment between the Union Pacific Railroad Spur and the existing I-10/I-49 Interchange. Id. The difference between the elevated and "selected overpasses" alternatives is in design of the project within the length of the corridor between Pinhook Road and the Union Pacific Spur (referred to in the record as the "core area"). Id. The elevated alternatives would run continuously on a ridge through this area, with arterial cross streets remaining open to traffic below. FEIS, at 2. The selected overpass alternatives would be at grade in this core area, with overpasses at Pinhook Road, Johnston Street, and Mudd Avenue. Id. Other cross-streets would be severed and closed by the freeway. Id. Outside of this core area, the elevated and selected overpasses alternatives are virtually identical. Id.
Between the commencement of the second draft EIS in 1997 and through 2002, LaDOTD and FHWA evaluated the potential effects of these alternatives on the surrounding areas, addressing direct and cumulative impacts on neighborhoods, public facilities, recreational facilities, cultural resources, noise, wetlands, waste sites, water resources, environment, traffic, and historic sites. FEIS, at 6-1. In November 2000, the draft EIS was released and circulated in accordance with 23 C.F.R. § 123(g). FEIS, at 5-4. A formal public hearing was conducted on December 14, 2000, pursuant to 23 C.F.R. § 770.111. Id. The Concerned Citizens Coalition responded to the draft by raising the existence of reasonable alternatives that had not been included in the EIS, including the East and West bypasses and the Teche Ridge Alternative.4 R. 16, at 4. Concerned Citizens also contended that the Administration had failed to direct sufficient study to public transportation as an alternative method of meeting the project's "purpose and need5" of relieving traffic congestion within the Evangeline Corridor. Id.
The final Environmental Impact Study was released on August 30, 2002. FEIS, at S-1. In the final EIS, the FHWA selected the "RR-4" alternative as the "preferred alternative." Id., at 2-37. RR-4 is an elevated highway which uses parts of the existing Evangeline Thruway alignment. See id. Plaintiff submitted timely comments on the final EIS in October 2002, contending that feasible and prudent alternatives to RR-4 had been improperly excluded from the final EIS, and that the FHWA had failed to consider impacts on historic properties and parkland, in violation of Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act, 23 U.S.C. § 138, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. § 4332(C)(iii), and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), 16 U.S.C. § 470(f).
A motion for summary judgment shall be granted if the pleadings, depositions and affidavits show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56; Little v. Liquid Air Corp., 37 F.3d 1069 (5th Cir.1994)(en banc). When a party seeking summary judgment bears the burden of proof at trial, it must come forward with evidence which would entitle it to a directed verdict if such evidence were uncontroverted at trial. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). As to issues which the non-moving party has the burden of proof at trial, the moving party may satisfy this burden by demonstrating the absence of evidence supporting the non-moving party's claim. Celotex Corp., 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548.
Once the movant produces such evidence, the burden shifts to the respondent to direct the attention of the court to evidence in the record sufficient to establish that there is a genuine issue of material fact requiring a trial. Id. The responding party may not rest on mere allegations made in the pleadings as a means of establishing a genuine issue worthy of trial. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248-49, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Little, 37 F.3d at 1075. If no issue of fact is presented and if the mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, the court is required to render the judgment prayed for. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Celotex Corp., 477 U.S. at 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548. Before it can find that there are no genuine issues of material fact, however, the court must...
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