Austin Transit Partnership opens 60-day comment period on Project Connect draft EIS; design tweaks proposed

Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) told the City of Austin Mobility Committee on Feb. 20 that the Project Connect draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) is available for public review through March 11, 2025, and that ATP is collecting comments before preparing a final EIS later this year.

The DEIS examines construction- and operations-era impacts and design refinements for the proposed light-rail alignment and stations. Jennifer Pine, ATP executive vice president for planning, community and federal programs, said the system would use electric trains and "provide frequent service every 5 to 10 minutes for most of the day." She told committee members ATP has completed additional design work and is returning recommended options from last year’s public engagement.

Why it matters: The DEIS is the federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review that will identify potential environmental and community impacts and commitments that could affect later phases of engineering and property acquisition. Public comments and ATP responses will be included in the final EIS and can influence station locations, mitigation measures and project timing.

Key proposed design decisions and project details presented to the committee: - New downtown station near Wooldridge Square and affirmation of a convention center-area station. - Recommendation to omit a previously considered Travis Heights station. - A proposed elevated station at the Waterfront. - An "East Riverside greenway" concept: a landscaped pedestrian and bicycle pathway in the median connecting five East Riverside stations from Lakeshore Boulevard to Yellowjacket, with more shade trees and no vehicular traffic along the pathway. - Park-and-ride facilities included at the phase‑one end‑of‑line locations; ATP said capacity estimates were developed using Federal Transit Administration modeling and that facility sizing will be revisited during further design.

ATP reported public engagement metrics to council members: more than 600 attendees at public meetings, in-person engagement with over 2,500 people and more than 600 comment submittals so far. Lindsay Wood, ATP executive vice president for design and construction, said the DEIS materials are on ATP's website and that comments may be submitted online, by email or by mail during the 60‑day review.

On station siting: Committee members asked why a station was not sited directly at Republic Square. ATP explained the alignment geometry and vertical grade near Third Street and Guadalupe make a station at Republic Square technically infeasible without substandard sidewalks or complex accessibility threshold issues; the recommended station site sits a short distance north and east where horizontal and vertical alignment allow a compliant station platform.

ATP noted the DEIS covers a broad array of environmental topics including water resources, air quality modeling, noise and vibration analysis, historic‑resource inventories and neighborhood and land‑use compatibility. The agency said all comments received in the 60‑day period will be reviewed and addressed in the final EIS expected later this year.

What’s next: The DEIS comment period ends March 11, 2025. ATP said it will continue public outreach and will incorporate public and agency comments into the final environmental impact statement and recommended design for federal consideration.

Speakers quoted or noted in this report: Jennifer Pine, Lindsay Wood, Lisa Storer (all Austin Transit Partnership).