Section 4(f) Guidance Materials
| Title |
Use |
| Section 4(f) Parks and Recreation Areas |
Determine whether you are impacting a Section 4(f) park or recreation area |
| Section 4(f) Evaluation Requirements (pdf 57 kb) |
Create descriptions of each Section 4(f) property impacted by a proposal and used by any alternative under consideration. |
| Environmental Procedures Manual |
Addresses the Section 4(f) issue in Chapter 450, Land Use, and Chapter 457, Section 4(f) Evaluation, which includes a Section 4(f) Evaluation Checklist. |
| Preparing and Processing Environmental and Section 4(f) Documents |
From the FHWA Technical Advisory "T 6640.8A, provides the current procedures and format to follow when preparing a Section 4(f) document |
| FHWA on Section 4(f) statute, regulations, and guidance |
Section 4(f) regulations and guidance, including guidance for determining de minimis impacts |
| Programmatic Section 4(f) Evaluations |
Provides the available programmatic Section 4(f) evaluations |
| FHWA Environmental Guidebook |
Very useful FHWA site for guidance |
| The Handbook on Departmental Review of Section 4(f) Evaluations |
This resource guide specifies the information required by Department of the Interior (DOI) reviewers of Section 4(f) evaluations |
| AASHTO Practitioner's Handbook on Section 4(f) |
Provides guidance for complying with Section 4(f) |
| Maryland State Highway Administration |
Section 4(f) Interactive training |
| FHWA Section 4(f) Training Session, 2004(ppt 930 kb) |
Power Point developed and delivered by FHWA, Washington Division for Regional presentations of a Section 4(f) training session Summer/Fall 2004 in coordination with the Environmental Services Office. |
Section 4(f) Procedures
A Draft Section 4(f) evaluation, when not included in a NEPA EIS or EA document, is required to be sent to the appropriate FHWA Transportation / Environmental Engineer assigned to each WSDOT Region. Two physical copies are to be mailed to the appropriate staff member at the addresses available on the FHWA Washington Division website. These Draft Section 4(f) documents will be sent to legal staff for a legal sufficiency review through the Division Office.
Following the FHWA legal sufficiency review and subsequent requested changes to the document, the Final Section 4(f) evaluation document is required to be distributed to the appropriate government entities and quantities listed on the Section 4(f) Distribution List (pdf 305 kb).
If the Section 4(f) evaluation is included in a draft EIS, the DOI Headquarters does not need additional copies of the draft or final EIS/Section 4(f) evaluation. If the Section 4(f) evaluation is processed separately or as part of an EA, the DOI should receive seven copies of the draft Section 4(f) evaluation for coordination and seven copies of the final Section 4(f) evaluation for information. In addition to coordination with DOI, draft Section 4(f) evaluations must be coordinated with the officials having jurisdiction over the Section 4(f) property and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) where these agencies have an interest in or jurisdiction over the affected Section 4(f) property (23 CFR 771.135(i)). The point of coordination for HUD is the appropriate Regional Office and for USDA, the Forest Supervisor of the affected National Forest. One copy should be provided to the officials with jurisdiction and two copies should be submitted to HUD and USDA when coordination is required.
A Programmatic Section 4(f) evaluation, unlike an individual Section 4(f) Evaluation, does not require a draft, a comment period, or circulation. Thus, although similar contacts and approvals must be negotiated with the responsible land stewards or officials, the approval process for programmatic evaluations is usually less time consuming.Time Estimates(pdf 205 kb) for producing and review of Programmatic and Evaluations are available.
Additional information from FHWA concerning format and content is available in Technical Advisory T 6640.8A, pages 31-33, IX. SECTION 4(f) EVALUATIONS-FORMAT AND CONTENT. It should be noted that a Final Individual 4(f) Evaluation must contain the following conclusion statement: "Based upon the above considerations, there is no feasible and prudent alternative to the use of land from the (identify Section 4(f) property) and the proposed action includes all possible planning to minimize harm to the (Section 4(f) property) resulting from such use.
Summary
Section 4(f) is intended to prohibit the physical intrusion use of a proposed transportation project onto public parks, refuges, or historic sites. If unprotected, these passive public areas could slowly be chipped away by public and private projects, many with good intentions, until their best attributes were consumed or destroyed.
The Section 4(f) process requires avoidance of the use of Section 4(f) property unless there is no feasible and prudent alternative to that use. If Alternatives to logically avoid impacts are not possible or have other unacceptable environmental, social, and/or economic impacts, then efforts must be documented to show that the alternative chosen has the least harm to Section 4(f) property and includes appropriate mitigation to minimize harm.
For WSDOT proposals with a Federal USDOT nexus, always consult with the Regional Environmental Manager if it is not clear whether or not Section 4(f) applies to a specific project.