Planning commission sends Safer Seward Highway comments to DOT for inclusion in NEPA record

The Planning and Zoning Commission voted Feb. 9 to ask the Alaska Department of Transportation to include the commission’s comments — listed in item C‑2 of the packet — in the administrative record for the Safer Seward Highway draft environmental assessment.

Catherine Wood, communications lead for the Safer Seward Highway project, told the commission the team had prepared a comment‑response matrix to show where public and commission concerns were addressed in the draft documents and that the draft environmental assessment is out for public review until Feb. 27. "After the public comment period closes, we will respond to every single comment that was received during the public comment period," Wood said, noting the project team will revise documents as needed and DOT will make a final decision whether to proceed with the proposed action.

Commissioner Jeff Ron said the commission should ensure the record closes the loop between the municipal CSS design study materials and the NEPA documents. Citing comment 38 in the matrix, Ron read a portion of the comment into the record: "There is not enough evidence in the CSS DSR to support the 4‑lane divided highway concept, the proposed action for the Safer Seward Highway project." DOT project staff responded that the CSS design study report is not intended to provide complete evidentiary support for a preferred alternative and referred commissioners to the draft EA for that level of analysis.

Ron moved, and Commissioner Brandy Eber seconded, a motion to provide "the comments in item C‑2" to DOT for inclusion in the ongoing NEPA process, clarified on the record to request inclusion of the commission’s comments themselves (not DOT’s responses) in the draft EA record. Commissioners including Polis and Polis’s supporters voiced support for asking DOT to accept the comments into the NEPA record. The motion passed.

The commission’s action is a recommendation to DOT and does not itself change project design; DOT retains responsibility for the NEPA record, formal responses in the final EA, and any design decisions that follow. The project team told the commission that any future, phased construction actions would return to the commission through the municipal CSS process when project‑level details are available.