RECORD
OF DECISION
Summary
On April 13, 1998, the Secretary of Transportation, Rodney Slater, signed the Record of Decision (ROD). A ROD is an action by a federal agency that documents its decision. The 1998 ROD selected the route of the freeway project and set forth an administrative process to enable final planning for the Project.
The Details
The signing of the ROD was a major milestone in the advancement of the 710 Gap Closure Project to realization. The ROD includes an extensive review of all of the environmental, historic preservation, mitigation measures, environmental justice, and related issues. The actual preparation of the ROD took several years and was the subject of a very intense (but unsuccessful) lobbying campaign by the City of South Pasadena to prevent it.
The preparation and signing of the ROD was furthered by a lawsuit filed by the City of Alhambra against the Federal Government. In its lawsuit, the City of Alhambra alleged that the Federal Government had a mandatory duty to either approve or disapprove the 710 environmental studies. The failure of the Federal Government to take any action at all for several years prompted Alhambra to file the suit in September 1996.
In the two years following Alhambra’s lawsuit, Caltrans and the FHWA moved forward to prepare a ROD that could be approved by U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Rodney Slater. After a comprehensive review of the project, Secretary Slater signed the ROD on April 13, 1998.
The ROD is
an exhaustive document that examines hundreds of issues raised about the
project over the years as the project has been refined and improved by
Caltrans.
The following table summarizes the contents of the ROD:
|
Contents of the Record of Decision
for the 710 Gap Closure Project
|
|
| Description of Section of the ROD |
Number of Pages
|
| Record of Decision for 710 Freeway between I-10 and I-210 |
51
|
| Volume I — Environmental Impact Statement Record of Comments |
751
|
| Volume II — Meridian Enhancement and Mitigation Advisory Committee Final Report (June, 1993) Record of Comments |
467
|
| Volume III — Multi-Mode/Low Build Proposals Record of Comments |
316
|
| Volume IV — Short Line Villa Tract Historic District Alignment Shift Record of Comments |
326
|
| Volume V — Additional Comments Received on Environmental Justice, Historic Preservation, and Other Issues |
882
|
| Environmental Reevaluation and Historic Building 4(f) Evaluation |
227
|
| TOTAL LENGTH OF ROD AND SUPPORTING DOCS: |
3,020
|
The preparation and signing of a ROD is no lightly-considered matter. The process of reviewing all the prior documentation on this extensively-studied project required a great deal of careful preparation and review. The 1998 ROD selected the route of the freeway project and set forth an administrative process to enable final planning for the Project.
Within 30 days after the signing of the ROD, the City of South Pasadena filed new lawsuits in both state and federal courts alleging deficiencies of the environmental and historic property documentation of the project. In their continuing attack on the 710 Project, the City of South Pasadena and its allies seek to prevent the project from advancing out of the environmental planning stage.