Title
Department of Transportation recommending the Board take the following actions related to the South Tahoe Greenway - Upper Truckee River Bridge at Johnson Meadow Project, Capital Improvement Program project number 36107023:
1) Adopt the California Environmental Quality Act Initial Study / Mitigated Negative Declaration / Environmental Checklist;
2) Adopt the Mitigation Monitoring Plan in Section 5 of the Initial Study/Monitoring Negative Declaration;
3) Approve the South Tahoe Greenway - Upper Truckee River Bridge at Johnson Meadow Project as described in the CEQA document; and
4) Authorize the Department of Transportation staff to file a Notice of Determination with the County Recorder/Clerk's Office and with the Governor's Office of Planning and Research.
(District 5)
FUNDING: Regional Surface Transportation Program (93.4%) and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Air Quality Mitigation Funds (6.6%).
Body
DISCUSSION/BACKGROUND
El Dorado County's Department of Transportation (Transportation) proposes to construct a 1.2-mile Class 1 shared-use path and replace the Upper Truckee River crossing at Johnson Meadow, connecting to the Dennis T. Machida Memorial Greenway.
As the lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Transportation prepared a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) to assess potential Project impacts in accordance with CEQA Guidelines (14 CA Administrative Code, ยง14000 et seq.). Certification of this MND by the Board would complete the CEQA portion of the environmental phase of this Project. Since the Project is funded with federal funds and administered through the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Caltrans serves as the lead agency for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). A Categorical Exclusion is expected to be filed by Caltrans under Section 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 771.117(c), specifically activity (c)(26), based on the studies completed by Transportation and its consult...
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