It’s the freeway everyone loves to hate: the I-710 between Long Beach and Los Angeles. Eighteen miles of eighteen-wheelers, and never enough lanes to serve all the traffic. You may already know that Caltrans, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (also known as Metro), and several other project partners are collaborating on a major, long-term project to address the congestion, air pollution, and high accident rates along this stretch of freeway.
The current step in this project is to write the environmental study documents (I am a member of the consultant team doing this work). And the current step in the environmental process is called scoping. That’s my topic for today: scoping. Everybody know what that means? If you do, that’s great, and you need read no further. However, I suspect most people don’t know what scoping is, and that’s unfortunate, because it’s one of the most important aspects of any public planning process.
Scoping, in my own definition, means simply deciding what’s in and what’s out: what topics will be addressed by the environmental analysis and which ones won’t. So often I’ve attended public meetings where the plan or document is about to be approved, and some well-meaning member of the public, who has taken time out of her evening to attend the meeting, comes to the microphone and says, “What about X?” – whatever “X” might be, perhaps the impact on a specific place or plant or group of people. Alas, it’s too late to address “X” because that decision was made two years ago – back at the point of scoping – and “X” might not have been considered important or relevant then.
Public scoping – that is, the public’s opportunity to suggest what should be addressed – for the I-710 project is about to happen. There will be three formal public scoping meetings for the project, held September 9th, 10th, and 11th, each from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and each in a different part of the I-710 corridor. The one in Long Beach will be on the 11th at Cabrillo High School. (On the 9th the meeting will be in East Los Angeles and on the 10th in Paramount – you can find details on all three meetings at the I-710 web site, along with other project information.)
Over the last two weeks there have been several public “pre-scoping” meetings in and around Long Beach. Attendees have raised such diverse issues as the potential for impacts on the Los Angeles River, maintaining the river’s flood control function, the 710 project’s impacts on tourism in Long Beach, and whether trees could serve as effective freeway sound barriers. In these meetings the project partners and consultants make presentations, then listen, take detailed notes, and respond to public questions and suggestions.
Right now another important environmental process is going through scoping at the state level. The Air Resources Board is developing a Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan. This is the start of a state plan for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, as required by the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (also often called by its famous bill number, AB 32). The state will accept comments on the draft scoping plan via its web site through October 2. This plan could have enormous environmental and economic ramifications for the state and all its communities, and scoping – to restate my point – is the time when the state will decide what to include and what not to include. Take a look, see what you think, evaluate the effect on you, your family, your business, your finances – and let them know!