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the Purpose and Need Statement; and 3) identify the scope of the environmental analysis to be performed (i.e., the range of disciplines to be analyzed and documented. 2. The analysis of the benefits, costs, and impacts of the alternatives is reported in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and its supporting documentation. 3. After the DEIS is published, the project sponsors provide a 45- to 60-day public and agency review period, including one or more public hearings that are held no earlier than 15 days after the publication of the DEIS. 4. Once the DEIS comment process is complete and a LPA is selected, the Final EIS (FEIS), which includes commitments to mitigation and responses to public and agency comments on the DEIS, is prepared for the No-Build Alternative and the LPA. The FEIS is based on preliminary engineering. 6. Once the FEIS is published and circulated to the public and agencies, FTA can issue a Record of Decision that documents the project’s compliance with NEPA and allows the Federal government to commit funding to the project. Under the Small Starts/New Starts Process: 1. FTA determines whether or not to allow the project to advance through major milestones in the Project Development process, including entry into Project Development (Preliminary Engineering and Final Design) and execution of a Project Construction Grant Agreement. 2. FTA bases that determination primarily on: 1) cost effectiveness; 2) local land use commitments; and 3) local financial commitments and capacities. 3. FTA rates projects in its annual report to Congress: Low, Medium, High. 4. Through FTA, the Administration decides which projects to include in its annual proposed budget for discretionary Section 5309 capital funds. B. Project Status In summary, the WEEE Project has completed the Scoping phase, is nearing completion of the definition of alternatives, and is initiating the preparation of the DEIS. Scoping Within Scoping, which was initiated in September 2007, the project: 1) identified its Cooperating and Participating Agencies; 2) drafted and finalized its Purpose and Need Statement; 3) identified the range of reasonable alternatives that meets the Purpose and Need Statement; and 4) documented the methods of analysis to be used to prepare the DEIS. The alternatives include the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Alternative and the No-Build Alternative, which has several alignment and terminus alternatives and options. Design Refinement LTD conducted an extensive and protracted community design dialogue process to work with the public, agencies, and jurisdictions to refine the conceptual designs of the various alignment alternatives and options. This process included: several community work sessions in the summer of 2008; a “Report Back” open house in October 2008; an open house in January 2009 to present and discuss additional options and alignments; numerous design and traffic review meetings with Memorandum to Eugene City Council Subj: West Eugene EmX Extension Project – Overview of Federal Project Development Process May 13, 2009 Page 2