Class Projects

2. Checklist EIS

Every area has some project that people would love to see completed or another that they dislike or are not sure about. I have written checklists that range from 20 to over 200 questions that can be used by a class to determine the kinds of issues that need to be investigated. The one below is a hybrid I wrote for two applications (Greenberg et al. 1979 & 2000). It has two sets of questions. The first asks if this problem might exist. If the answer is yes, then the class moves on to the follow-up questions. At the end of the exercise, the class shares how many serious issues might exist, and considers their importance, relative to the benefits of the project.

For every negative question that is listed, there is a positive one. So, for example, a new project might increase congestion or it might decrease or remain the same. But I have not written all the positive ones to conserve space. The exceptions are for some of the economic and social impacts.

The key to using this set of questions is finding a local project that the class is interested in and is close by. It can be applied to a housing development, a new facility on campus, and yet it can be applied to industrial facilities and to clean-up and reuse of former abandoned sites. It can be applied to a vacant lot that the class would like to develop. Students can create maps, use air photos, and otherwise involve themselves on the site and plan.

 

Each group (hopefully at least six groups, one for each impact category) should prepare and present a report to the class as a whole, leading to a debate about the project as well as the EIS. The written group reports can be short, 2−5 pages, and the key is to highlight the important impacts that the students believe might drive a decision about the project from the community perspective. The reports can be PowerPoints, posters, videos, again depending upon the professor’s evaluation and strengths of the students.

At least a full class period should be devoted to presenting the project analysis, and the students and professor should consider inviting other students and faculty to the presentation.

Advantages: students like this exercise and it can be applied to any nearby location. The data requirements are minimal.

Disadvantages: the professor and students have to create a project that is manageable for a class to study in a semester, which will exclude many complicated ones.

Recommendation: Better fit for less-experienced students and places where real projects are not being considered.

 

Case Study Application of the Checklist

You live in a residential area about two blocks from an old warehouse that originally was a furniture factory. The area needs a new school, and the 5-acre site is a possibility for that new school . It also has several large baseball, football, track, and soccer fields, as well as an outdoor basketball and two tennis courts. While the community as a whole would like to turn this eyesore into a valuable community asset, you wonder about some of the possible negative consequences and how they might be mitigated.

Air Quality

During ,construction, there will be demolition and then rebuilding. For about a year there will be some noise and dust that may bother the local residents. These can be managed by planning the activities so they do not interfere with residents’ use of their homes and yards.

It is important that any residual toxic material, contamination in the ground and in the building be identified and be included in the demolition plan before any major work is done on demolishing the site.

During operation, multiple school buses will arrive in the morning and depart in the afternoon, which will cause local traffic congestion and the buildup of some air pollutants immediately adjacent to the entrance of the parking lot. Periodically, sounds that will annoy some people will come from children and adults using the playing fields throughout the week. Talking with the designers about where to put the entrances and exits and how to regulate use of the land should reduce local concerns.

Water Resources

A large parking lot can produce considerable impervious cover and thereby increase the flow of gasoline-related products into nearby water bodies and underground supplies. This can be reduced by building structures that capture flow from impervious surfaces. Also, there are new forms of concrete that are pervious. The green ball fields should be an improvement over the former concrete-dominated land use.

Water use will increase once the facility is open, and a new infrastructure will be needed for water, sewage, electric, and computer use. The scheduling of these can be arranged so that there is minimum inconvenience to nearby residents.

Ecological Quality

The land is flat and no ecologically significant population lives on it. Depending upon the community preference, it might be possible to build a community garden and with sufficient funding a greenhouse on the site for community use. Other “green” attributes can be added to the plan if sufficient resources are available, or at least the facility can be designed to accommodate them in the future.

Economic Impacts

Current housing prices have been negatively impacted by the 5-acre (abandoned and fenced off) industrial-commercial site. The school and recreation facilities should help property values.

As noted above, an infrastructure will need to be added for the school and recreation facilities.

The town will need to have police, fire, garbage collection for the facilities, and a careful study of traffic patterns will need to be done in order to reduce the probability of accidents near the site: involving buses, cars, bike riders, and walkers. It may be necessary to add traffic lights, speed bumps, and other auto traffic control devices, and a bike lane should be considered, if at all possible.

The school will replace an older building elsewhere in the town. Retail services in the immediate vicinity of the school may benefit. However, jobs and retail services may decrease in the vicinity of the old one, unless a replacement function is found.

Social Impacts

With careful planning, community social capital should be improved by making the recreation facilities available to the community, and, if possible, adding a meeting room for the community in the school building. Alternatively, a separate building for the community on the site should be considered.

Project 2 derived from the following two publications:

Greenberg, M. et al. (1979). A Primer on Industrial Environmental Impact, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University

Greenberg, M. (2000). ‘Balancing applies and oranges: factors to consider in brownfields
remediation’. In NACCHO, Community Revitalization and Public Health,  pp. 115−123. Washington, D.C.: NACCHO & ATSDR