US Customs and Border Protection Ajo Housing Development ... - GSA

Comment
50. The statement that Executive Order
13006 is not applicable to this project
indicates a misunderstanding of the
intent of the EA.
51. No direct responses are provided to the
citizen’s comments in Table 5. Why?
52. The scoping documents in Appendices
D, E, and F state that the CBP proposes
to construct housing at a specific
property (the parcel at 55 Sahuaro St.).
These documents appear to presume
that the Preferred Alternative had
already been selected and that this was
the only alternative discussed.
Response
Based on the GSA Public Building Service—Urban Policy
Update, Issue 1, May 2000, the GSA has concluded that Executive
Order 13006 is not applicable to this project. The focus of this
Executive Order is on our nation’s central cities and “urban areas.”
The Office of Management and Budget defines an urban area as
(1) within the jurisdiction of any incorporated city, town, etc., with
a population greater than 10,000 or (2) an area within or adjacent
to a city, town, etc., with a population density of 1,500 inhabitants
or more per square mile. The community of Ajo meets neither
criterion.
The scoping process is used to develop the scope of the EA. The
lead federal agency is ultimately responsible for determining the
scope of an environmental document. During internal and external
scoping, environmental issues identified by program specialists,
other agency staff, and the public helped the CBP define the range
of resource topics that are addressed in the EA. Table 5 is simply a
summary of scoping comments received.
Chapter 3 outlines the alternatives development process through
the Feasibility Study. Multiple sites were initially evaluated, and
all but the parcel at 55 Sahuaro St. were eliminated from
consideration. With no other feasible sites identified, the public
scoping announcements and the meeting focused on the
55 Sahuaro St. site and the No Action Alternative. The Draft EA
compares the Preferred Alternative with the No Action
Alternative.
APE = Area of Potential Effects, CBP = U.S. Customs and Border Protection, DWID = Domestic Water Improvement District,
EA = Environmental Assessment, GSA = U.S. General Services Administration, LEED = Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design, NEPA = National Environmental Policy Act, OMB = Office and Management and Budget,
SHPO = Arizona State Historic Preservation Office, USFWS = U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Environmental Assessment 47 Ajo Housing Development Project