T.F. Green Airport Improvement Program - FEIS Chapters - PVD

T.F. Green Airport Improvement ProgramEnvironmental Impact Statement and Final Section 4(f) EvaluationGroup) was established at the beginning of the EIS preparation process. See Section 8.3 for information on thecomposition and activities of the Coordination Group.This chapter summarizes the consultation and coordination process through which federal, state, and localagencies, elected officials, members of the public, and other interested entities were involved in this EIS. Inaddition to providing a description of the public outreach and consultation, this chapter also discusses requiredpermits associated with the proposed T.F. Green Airport Improvement Program. Public involvement isdiscussed in Section 8.2, Inter-Agency/Tribal Consultation and Coordination is described in Section 8.3,Section 106 consultation between the FAA, the Rhode Island State Historic Preservation Office (RISHPO) andthe Narragansett Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office (NITHPO) is provided in Section 8.4, Section 4(f)and Section 6(f) Coordination is in Section 8.5, and coordination with the City of Warwick is described inSection 8.6. A description of the anticipated required permits and approvals is in Section 8.7, a summary of theFEIS notifications and distribution is provided in Section 8.8, and a summary of public comments on the EIS inSection 8.9.8.2 Public InvolvementThe FAA conducted a public outreach program for the T.F. Green Airport Improvement Program EIS to solicitinformation relevant to the study from agencies and the public and to keep local officials, community membersand other parties informed about the process and status of the EIS. Public outreach included an initial scopingmeeting in 2002 and a second scoping meeting in 2005 when the project scope was revised. There were alsofour public information meetings, small group meetings, a public hearing on the DEIS, public notices, mailings,emails, newspaper and cable television advertisements, and a website (www.vhb.com/pvd/eis/) dedicated tothe Airport Improvement Program.Public outreach activities were carried out in the area surrounding T.F. Green through newspaper and cableadvertisements; however, the majority of outreach was done in the City of Warwick, where T.F. Green Airportis located. The following sections describe the public outreach program in more detail.8.2.1 Public Scoping MeetingScoping is an early, open, and on-going part of the NEPA process used to determine the range of alternatives,issues, and impacts that the EIS will address in detail. The process includes appropriate federal, state, regional,and local agencies and occurs early in the NEPA process before final decisions have been made on the types ofstudies, study area, or content of the EIS. Scoping provides agencies and the public with the opportunity tocontribute to the technical direction and analysis of the EIS and to contribute information that could be relevantto evaluation of the impacts of the proposed action. Scoping meetings are held after a Notice of Intent ispublished in the Federal Register.Following the publication of the first Notice of Intent in the Federal Register on June 27, 2002, a Public ScopingMeeting was held on July 25, 2002. After the projects included in the proposed T.F. Green Airport ImprovementProgram changed, a second Notice of Intent was published in the Federal Register on January 19, 2005, and aSupplementary Public Scoping Meeting was held on February 8, 2005 at the Radisson Hotel in Warwick. TheChapter 8 - Coordination and Consultation 8-2 July 2011\\Mawatr\ev\09228.00\reports\FEIS_Final_July_2011\PVD_CH08_Consultation_JUL_2011.doc