Memorandum
Date February 20, 2014
TO Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization
FROM Karl H. Quackenbush
CTPS Executive Director
RE Work Program for: Environmental Justice and Title VI Analysis Methodology Review
Review and approval
That the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization vote to approve the work program for Environmental Justice and Title VI Analysis Methodology Review presented in this memorandum
Technical Support/Operations Analysis Projects
11389
Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization
Principal: Annette Demchur
Manager: Bruce Kaplan
MPO Planning Contract #78890
MPO §5303 Contract #78922
This is MPO work and will be carried out in conformance with the priorities established by the MPO.
As a recipient of Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) funds, the Boston Region MPO is required to comply with both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the US Department of Transportation’s environmental justice (EJ) policy.
While there is significant overlap between the two, Title VI and EJ analyses are not interchangeable. Title VI is a federal statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin and applies to all programs and activities, while EJ is an executive order that requires the identification of disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of programs, policies, or activities on minority populations and low-income populations; Title VI is one tool for achieving the principals of environmental justice.
The FTA and FHWA have each developed specific Title VI and EJ program and reporting requirements for their funding recipients. Prior to 2012, FTA described their requirements for recipients for both Title VI and EJ in a single Title VI circular (FTA C 4702.1A). The FTA later recognized the confusion between the requirements of Title VI and the consideration of EJ principles. As a result, in 2012 the FTA introduced separate circulars for Title VI (FTA C 4702.1B) and EJ (FTAC 4703.1). The FHWA, on the other hand, continues to extend its Title VI/Nondiscrimination Program to include not only EJ populations, but also populations protected by related federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of age, sex, and disability.
The MPO staff carries out the following activities to support the inclusion of Title VI and environmental justice principles in the transportation planning process; to identify the needs of Title VI and environmental justice communities within the Boston Region MPO area, the MBTA service area, and statewide; and to ensure that programs, services, and activities are provided without discrimination:
While the principles and general requirements are similar for all of the Title VI and EJ analyses conducted by staff, there are differences in the methodologies used and analyses required for Title VI and EJ, as well as for the various agencies and levels (for example, for an individual project vs. systemwide). This study will take an overall look at the way the Boston Region MPO staff conducts environmental justice and Title VI analyses and will identify distinct opportunities for improvement and standardization. These recommendations will support the MPO, MBTA, and MassDOT in meeting federal Title VI and EJ requirements; they may also enhance the MPO’s implementation of performance-based planning.
The primary objective of this study is to produce recommendations to integrate, improve, and standardize the approaches taken to the separate and distinct Title VI and EJ analyses performed by MPO staff.
Work Description
The work required to accomplish the project’s objectives will be carried out in the six tasks described below.
For each update to federal Title VI and EJ guidance, the MPO must update its own processes and analysis methods. To date, most of the Title VI and EJ analyses conducted by staff have been completed under previous versions of FHWA and FTA guidance. Some of the analysis methods have been updated ad hoc for specific projects to comply with recent FHWA and FTA guidance, but staff members have not had the opportunity to conduct a comprehensive and coordinated review of the various requirements and levels of analysis across agencies, or to develop a standardized approach to conducting the various types of Title VI and EJ analyses. In this task, staff will conduct a comprehensive review of current FHWA, FTA, and FRA guidance and requirements for both Title VI and EJ for states, metropolitan planning organizations, and transit operators.
Documentation in narrative description and tabular forms on current FHWA, FTA, and FRA requirements and guidance for Title VI and EJ analyses, including geographic levels of analysis, and metrics, methods, and thresholds
MPO staff members have produced a variety of Title VI and EJ analyses for the MPO, MassDOT, and the MBTA at both the project and systemwide level. The staff will develop a comprehensive inventory of the different methodologies, levels of analysis, metrics, and thresholds of disparate impact and disproportionate burdens that were used. This review will involve the following steps:
Documentation in narrative and tabular forms of the different methodologies, geographic levels of analysis, metrics, and methods and thresholds used in MPO staff’s Title VI and EJ analyses, and the comparison to current requirements for Title VI and EJ analyses
Because the MPO staff prepares FTA- and FHWA-required Title VI and EJ analyses for the MPO, MassDOT, and the MBTA, and might need to prepare analyses required by the FRA, identifying peer agencies will necessitate examining not only analogous MPOs, but also transit operators and state transportation agencies similar to the MBTA and MassDOT. The staff will review Title VI and EJ reports and analyses produced by peer groups and will produce a summary of the analytical methods used, identifying particularly noteworthy methods used by the peer agencies with respect to the following:
Documentation in narrative and tabular forms of the methodologies and metrics used by peer agencies for both FTA- and FHWA-required Title VI and EJ analyses
In this task, staff will evaluate the potential application of the methodologies identified in Task 3 for improving the Title VI and EJ work conducted by MPO staff. Staff will use the findings from this review as input into the development of ideas for improving the methodologies that will be used for future Title VI and EJ analyses.
Documentation in narrative and tabular forms showing the benefits and possible challenges of the methodologies identified as having potential use by MPO staff, as well as recommendations for improving the methodologies already being used by MPO staff
Some aspects of the MPO’s Title VI and EJ analysis methodologies could be consolidated and standardized across different levels of analysis: between the operator-level, MPO-level, and MassDOT-level analyses; or, alternatively, between project- and system-level analyses. This task will review opportunities for standardizing the methodologies for the various levels of analysis that the MPO staff conducts.
Documentation in narrative and tabular forms showing the recommended standardization of the various Title VI and EJ analyses
CTPS will prepare a report that incorporates all of the findings of Tasks 1 through 5, makes recommendations for improvements to Title VI and EJ analytical approaches, and provides guidelines for conducting Title VI and EJ analyses. This report will be presented to the MPO.
It is estimated that this project will be completed seven months after work commences. The proposed schedule, by task, is shown in Exhibit 1.
The total cost of this project is estimated to be $60,260. This includes the cost of 23.3 person-weeks of staff time and overhead at the rate of 97.42 percent. A detailed breakdown of estimated costs is presented in Exhibit 2.
KQ/AR/ar
Task | Month | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
1.
Review Current Requirements and Guidance for Title VI and EJ Analyses |
From month 1 to 2.
|
||||||
2.
Review Recent MPO Title VI and EJ Analyses |
From month 2 to 3.
|
||||||
3.
Review Peer Agency Title VI and EJ Analyses |
From month 3 to 4.
|
||||||
4.
Evaluate Alternative Methodologies |
From month 4 to 5.
|
||||||
5.
Identify Opportunities for Standardizing Title VI and EJ Analyses |
From month 5 to 6.
|
||||||
6.
Prepare Final Report |
From month 6 to 8.
Deliverable
A
, Final report delivered by Month 8
|
Task | Person-Weeks | Direct Salary | Overhead (97.42%) | Total Cost | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M-1 | P-5 | P-4 | P-3 | P-2 | Total | ||||
1.
Review Current Requirements and Guidance for Title VI and EJ Analyses
|
0.2 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 2.3 | $2,821 | $2,748 | $5,569 |
2.
Review Recent MPO Title VI and EJ Analyses
|
0.2 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 2.6 | $3,328 | $3,242 | $6,571 |
3.
Review Peer Agency Title VI and EJ Analyses
|
0.2 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | $3,816 | $3,717 | $7,533 |
4.
Evaluate Alternative Methodologies
|
0.3 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 3.5 | $4,663 | $4,543 | $9,206 |
5.
Identify Opportunities for Standardizing Title VI and EJ Analyses
|
0.7 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 3.9 | $5,344 | $5,206 | $10,550 |
6.
Prepare Final Report
|
2.8 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 4.0 | 0.4 | 8.0 | $10,552 | $10,280 | $20,832 |
Total
|
4.4 | 4.7 | 0.4 | 13.4 | 0.4 | 23.3 | $30,524 | $29,736 | $60,260 |