Meeting_Body
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
JANUARY 19, 2017
Preamble
Motion by:
Director Kuehl
January 19, 2017
Consideration of Regional Advance Mitigation Programs
WHEREAS transportation projects in Los Angeles County may result in biological impacts to plant and/or animal habitat, or biological systems;
WHEREAS some counties and transportation agencies have seen benefit and cost savings in developing a Regional Advance Mitigation Program (RAMP) to effectively and efficiently deliver comprehensive mitigations for a combination of projects whose biological impacts have been evaluated programmatically;
WHEREAS some counties and transportation agencies have seen the benefit of community engagement in the RAMP process, which has led to greater understanding and public support for transportation projects;
WHEREAS Metro’s capital program now and into the future includes projects that may be located in sensitive habitat areas or within wildlife movement corridors and may require mitigation that might best be undertaken as part of a Los Angeles County RAMP;
WHEREAS Metro’s future and proposed expanded pipeline of highway, transit and active transportation capital projects include infrastructure to be developed over an extended period of time that will have an impact on plant and/or animal species, habitats, or biological systems. However, these projects may be so far in the future as to lack sufficient detail to allow evaluation and determination of potential conditions and mitigations which may be found as well as the specific mitigations and costs thereof;
WHEREAS it is important that the applicability of a RAMP approach be determined at the earliest practicable time so as to allow a coordinated effort with other Los Angeles County agencies or neighboring counties that may pursue or may already have a RAMP program.
Title
CONSIDER Motion by Director Kuehl that the Board direct the CEO to:
A. Meet with environmental stakeholders and representatives of Caltrans District 7, the County of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, state and federal fish and wildlife agencies, and other potentially interested parties to discuss any interest in a RAMP approach for multijurisdictional cooperation in biological mitigations, and explore the development of a conservation greenprint that identifies and helps prioritize areas of high ecological value, water resources, and wildlife movement corridors;
B. Convene a working group of environmental stakeholders and Metro/Caltrans project managers for Transit, Highway and Active Transportation projects to develop an early screening process for biological evaluation to be applied to the review of projects scheduled for planning and/or construction over the next thirty years. Screening shall not only include any likelihood of direct and indirect impacts to plant and/or animal species, habitats, biological systems, and wildlife corridors, but also an evaluation of multiple Metro projects with regard to commonalities in ecosystems, animal and plant type, habitat, watershed, and scheduled timing of implementation. Project evaluation should also determine whether current review and implementation status renders the project inappropriate for inclusion in a RAMP; and
C. Prepare a report back to the Board within 120 days on the preliminary results of the consultations and a proposed early screening process to be considered for all major Metro transportation projects, as well as an approach to identifying high value conservation lands, water resources, and wildlife movement corridors.