Environmental Reviews and Case Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Planning and Permitting: City of Seattle Elliott Bay Seawall Project Case Study

Abstract

Creating and implementing effective tools for navigating the regulatory process is becoming increasingly important to the success of simple to complex projects, particularly those in urban settings. To guide a project through the planning and permitting processes, a skilled and coordinated team equipped with a practical and easily implementable toolkit is required. Tools must be integrated into the design development phase of a project and throughout the permitting phase to adequately meet complex regulatory requirements and begin the project's construction in a timely and cost-effective manner. This article discusses the importance of defining a project, effective project communication, developing an Environmental Approvals Approach (EAA), and proper project scheduling to improve the environmental planning and permitting processes. The City of Seattle's Elliott Bay Seawall Project is presented as a case study of these qualities.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Derek Koellmann, AICP, CEP, Principal Planner at Anchor QEA, and Mark Mazzola, Environmental Manager at the Seattle Department of Transportation for the Elliott Bay Seawall Project, for peer review and contributions to this paper.

Notes

1 The City of Seattle Elliott Bay Seawall Project website is available at: http://www.waterfrontseattle.org.

2 The Elliott Bay Seawall Project Environmental Impact Statement and related materials are available at: http://www.waterfrontseattle.org/seawall.

3 The Council on Environmental Quality initiatives website is available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives.

4 The State of Washington Governor's Office of Regulatory Innovation and Assistance website is available at: http://www.oria.wa.gov/.

5 The State of Washington Governor's Office of Regulatory Innovation and Assistance Regulatory Handbook is available at: http://www.oria.wa.gov/?pageid=403.

6 The US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration Environmental Toolkit is available at: http://environment.fhwa.dot.gov/features.asp.

7 The Washington State Department of Transportation Environmental website is available at: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/environment.