Last month, the Trump administration proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, a nearly 50-year-old law that enforces burdensome environmental-impact standards on infrastructure projects.
The project dates to 2012, when Hurricane Sandy swept away stones and mortar of the century-old wall.
The sea wall offers a national lesson about NEPA's impact on public-infrastructure projects.
Just as New York and New Jersey lobbied the Department of Transportation to replace a train tunnel under the Hudson River, and the late House Speaker, Tip O'Neill, arranged for Congress to appropriate funds for Boston's Big Dig project too, did Rye officials look to Washington to rebuild the sea wall.
These signoffs were needed to obtain a tidal wetland permit from New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, which, in turn, reviewed if the project complied with its Coastal Erosion Hazard Area regulations.
The project costs, I learned, are shared by two jurisdictions-the City of Rye and the Town of Rye-which jointly run the Rye Town Park Commission.
Matters will improve if the Trump administration prevails with its proposed changes to NEPA. Reforms would include the creation of a new category for "Non-major" projects, as well as a one-year-time limit for agency approval of projects like Rye's wall.
https://www.city-journal.org/trump-nepa-reform
The project dates to 2012, when Hurricane Sandy swept away stones and mortar of the century-old wall.
The sea wall offers a national lesson about NEPA's impact on public-infrastructure projects.
Just as New York and New Jersey lobbied the Department of Transportation to replace a train tunnel under the Hudson River, and the late House Speaker, Tip O'Neill, arranged for Congress to appropriate funds for Boston's Big Dig project too, did Rye officials look to Washington to rebuild the sea wall.
These signoffs were needed to obtain a tidal wetland permit from New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, which, in turn, reviewed if the project complied with its Coastal Erosion Hazard Area regulations.
The project costs, I learned, are shared by two jurisdictions-the City of Rye and the Town of Rye-which jointly run the Rye Town Park Commission.
Matters will improve if the Trump administration prevails with its proposed changes to NEPA. Reforms would include the creation of a new category for "Non-major" projects, as well as a one-year-time limit for agency approval of projects like Rye's wall.
https://www.city-journal.org/trump-nepa-reform
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