FAQ
Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) is a federal process used by transportation agencies to create efficiency in transportation planning and project development. The City of South Bend is using this process for the Market District Planning Study to identify community priorities and needs for the study area.
The PEL process emphasizes collaboration among all stakeholders, including transportation planners, environmental specialists, community representatives, and various agencies, to identify potential environmental impacts and devise mitigation strategies.
The key steps in the PEL process are:
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Data Collection and Analysis: Conduct comprehensive environmental assessments, including analysis of air and water quality, wildlife habitats, cultural resources, and community impacts within the study area.
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Develop Project Alternatives: Based on the analysis, generate different transportation project options, evaluating the environmental impacts of each alternative.
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Public Engagement: Facilitate meaningful public input to understand community concerns and priorities related to the project and its potential environmental effects.
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Decision-Making: Using the collected data and public feedback, select the project alternative that best balances transportation needs with environmental considerations.
PEL Benefits
The PEL process combines planning, engineering, and NEPA-like activities. It encourages early and meaningful public engagement to ensure local needs and priorities are identified and can be considered. This helps provide a clear direction forward. The decisions and analyses from PEL inform future project development. PEL also promotes environmental stewardship by engaging early with federal and state environmental resource agencies and identifying potential environmental impacts prior to evaluation under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
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NEPA requires federally funded projects to evaluate how the proposed project could impact the surrounding environment, including both the natural environment, like waterways, wetlands, and endangered species, and the social environment, like historic resources and social and economic factors. This typically occurs during preliminary design of a project.
PEL will help decision-makers with expediting the project development process by initiating NEPA-like activities such as: drafting the purpose and need, identifying reasonable and feasible alternatives, determining preliminary impacts, potential permits, and mitigation assessment.
Through this process we also want to have an engaged and educated public and initiate building strong relationships with resource agencies that will continue into the NEPA phase. We will also develop an action plan that includes NEPA readiness with recommendations on logical termini with potential phasing and programming. With the intent that the NEPA process can start immediately following the PEL study as funding becomes available. For more information on the Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) process, please visit the USDOT website: www.environment.fhwa.dot.gov/env_initiatives/pel.aspx.
Two previous studies have been completed within the general vicinity of the Market District study area. The University of Notre Dame School of Architecture students studied the area as part of a class exercise in February 2022. The Monroe Park Edgewater Neighborhood Plan was adopted by the City of South Bend in August of 2023 and is for areas south and west of the river. This plan helps to define part of the Market District and will feed into this study to look at both sides of the river.