Institute of the Environment

Over the past decade, western Washington has experienced rapid growth in population and development. Recently, the listing of a variety of salmonid fish species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has heightened the need to integrate the needs of listed species and people, as continued growth is predicted for the area. Currently, transportation infrastructure projects are reviewed for compliance with the ESA and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on a project-by-project basis. Considering the complexity and speed of which urbanization is occurring in western Washington, this approach presents multiple problems, including: missed opportunities for minimizing impacts, inadequately analyzed indirect and cumulative effects/impacts, significant permitting delays, and uncoordinated review and conservation. The traditional project review/permit acquisition processes is not well suited for dealing with ESA-listed species in quickly urbanizing environments. Without an adequate mechanism for integrating land-use planning and ESA concerns, future actions could contribute to the continued degradation of ecosystems upon which listed species depend, and may encounter permitting delays. Our paper presents a recommended approach to better integrate land-use planning and ESA concerns. Our recommendation is that those local jurisdictions with the greatest juxtaposition of transportation infrastructure projects and occurrence of listed species develop regional planning processes for ESA compliance. These processes would combine the state’s Growth Management Act and ESA requirements, culminating in the implementation of multi-species Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) on a city/county basis. This would provide increased certainty to transportation planners and developers in understanding the constraints, opportunities, and conservation measures necessary to adequately conserve listed species. We discuss the expected outcomes, benefits, disadvantages and assumptions behind such an approach. We provide examples of similar efforts that have involved planning for transportation infrastructure and address the cost and level of effort needed to implement multi-species regional HCPs. We also describe how delivery of transportation projects may be streamlined with this approach.