Introduction In 1921, the city
fathers of Calhoun Falls approached the Abbeville County Highway Commission
about paving the dirt road between the towns of Calhoun Falls and Abbeville.
Their request was approved and construction began in 1922 on what is now SC 72.
This small beginning became part of a larger plan by the Calhoun Highway
Association to connect Atlanta, Georgia, with Raleigh, North Carolina.
Construction began on the Georgia-Carolina Memorial Bridge over the Savannah
River in spring 1926. It opened on Armistice Day, 1927. This bridge, located
approximately 5 miles west of Calhoun Falls, linked Georgia with South
Carolina.
Almost 80 years
later, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) is proposing to
widen approximately 15.5 miles of two-lane SC 72 from the South Carolina side
of Richard B. Russell Lake, an impoundment of the Savannah River, through
Calhoun Falls to SC 28, west of the town of Abbeville, in Abbeville County.
This project is also part of a larger two-State, long-range plan to provide a
multilane highway between Athens, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, to
help attract industry and promote economic development. Calhoun Falls is more
than 60 miles from the nearest interstate highway. Upgrading GA 72/SC 72 to a
multilane highway would improve access to Calhoun Falls and make it a more
attractive location for manufacturing and distribution facilities.
Additionally, operational costs would be relatively inexpensive, and markets in
Atlanta, Columbia, and Charlotte would be only about 2 hours away by truck.
Existing 2-lane Savannah Street through Calhoun Falls.
At least one of the
six proposed alignments for this project would cut through a minority community
in Calhoun Falls known as Bucknelly. SCDOT and the consultants it hired to
conduct an environmental assessment (EA) wanted to involve this neighborhood in
decision-making process about these road improvements, but they were initially
unsure of the best ways to generate and maintain community participation. This
case study shows how transportation professionals and political leaders worked
to build this involvement. A transportation-based revitalization in the small
town of Calhoun Falls may now be possible because of this leadership.
Snapshot of
Calhoun Falls Community
Location:
Calhoun Falls,
South Carolina, is a small town in a rural area near the South Carolina/Georgia
border about 65 miles northwest of Augusta, Georgia, and sits on the shores of
Richard B. Russell Lake, an impoundment of the Savannah River.
Population: 2,328
Racial
composition:
- White - 52
percent
- African
American - 47 percent
- Other - 1
percent
Median
household income: $17,414
Poverty
threshold for a family of four: $12,674
Households
earning less than $15,000:
-
White - 45 percent
- African
American - 42 percent
Economy:
Originally on
the eastern edge of an old plantation, Calhoun Falls still has cotton-related
industries as its major employers.
Source: 1990
U.S. Census
|
The Region and Community Calhoun Falls, South
Carolina, is located about 65 miles northwest of Augusta, Georgia, on the South
Carolina/Georgia border. What is now Calhoun Falls was originally the eastern
edge of Millwood, James E. Calhoun's plantation. The town began in 1891 with
the coming of the railroads and grew with the dissolution of the Calhoun
plantation in 1903. By 1907, Calhoun Falls was an incorporated town with a
circular boundary that extended 1 mile from the intersection of Cox Avenue and
Savannah Street, now SC 72. Cox Avenue began to develop as the commercial
center of Calhoun Falls, while Savannah Street became the main thoroughfare
connecting Calhoun Falls to Abbeville. In 1909, the town had its first
industry, a cotton textile mill. Calhoun Mills became the town's largest
employer and spawned the growth of several private cotton-ginning companies, a
bank, and a hotel.
Most African
Americans who moved from Millwood plantation into Calhoun Falls were former
slaves or the children of former slaves. They settled in the southeastern
portion of town in an area now known as Bucknelly. The area is located along
the eastern side of one railroad and south of Seneca Street, which was one
block south of Savannah Street. Middle-class whites lived along both sides of
Savannah Street and for several blocks north of Savannah Street to the southern
side of the mill village associated with Calhoun Mills. The mill was located
along the northern
side of the other railroad and the mill village, which was populated by white
residents only, and straddled the railroad.
African-American and
white workers were forbidden by State law to work beside each other in the
mill, so African Americans were generally relegated to working as either
farmers or in menial jobs. During the early 1920s, Mr. Oscar Ellison, an
African American raised in Calhoun Falls, began teaching African-American
children in Bucknelly's one-room schoolhouse.
Much of what exists
today in Calhoun Falls is a result of the growth that occurred during the 1950s
and 1960s. Large areas north of Savannah Street were developed in the 1950s as
Calhoun Mills and other businesses expanded. Since the 1960s, however, there
has been little growth. Many of the stores and businesses on Cox
Avenue and Savannah Street have closed, many of the older houses have been torn
down, and the mill village south of the railroad no longer exists.
Local schools
integrated in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a result, new elementary and
high schools were built in the northern portion of the town, and the Ellison
School and its adjoining recreation areas were converted into the Ellison
Community Center. These changes allowed African-American high school students
to attend school in Calhoun Falls rather than be bussed to the county's only
African-American high school in Abbeville. The only elementary school in the
town, however, was sited more than 1.5 miles from Bucknelly. In addition, the
town built a new sewage treatment plant and a local electric utility built a
large new substation. Both facilities are located within the Bucknelly
community. The residents usually refer to the sewage lagoons as "Lake Seneca."
Richard B. Russell
Lake was created in the mid-1970s by damming the Savannah River. Hopes that the
lake would attract tourists for recreation and outdoor sporting have not been
realized. Similarly, the South Carolina Department of Commerce has been
unsuccessful in its efforts to develop a second-home golf and lakeside
community in the northwest portion of the town over the last decade.
Since the early
1990s, Calhoun Falls has had an African-American mayor and the town's
population is now estimated to be more than 50 percent African American. For
the most part Seneca Street remains a dividing line between the African
American and white communities and the railroad has become the dividing line
between middle-class Calhoun Falls and the mill village. The mill remains the
town's largest employer with approximately 500 employees. Today, the population
of the town of Calhoun Falls is approximately 2,500. It has the second largest
population of any incorporated municipality in Abbeville County.
Community
Building: Oscar Ellison's Legacy to Calhoun
Falls
In 1924,
South Carolina passed a law ensuring all white children would have a minimum 7
months of schooling per year. While this law did not apply to African-American
children, it did provide enough money for Calhoun Falls to build a four-room
schoolhouse in Bucknelly for African-American children. Oscar Ellison became
the principal of this new school and his wife became one of its first teachers.
By 1925, enrollment at what had become known as the Ellison School had grown to
184 students from Calhoun Falls and its surrounding areas.
His school was
also an institution for advancement of his community. In 1929, Mr. Ellison
reached out to his community by adding agricultural classes for
African-American farmers. While no subjects were taught beyond the 10th grade,
Mr. Ellison tutored some African-American high school students so they could go
on to college. South Carolina would not award its first high school diploma to
African Americans until 1930. Although the school had no kitchen facilities,
Mr. Ellison improvised a lunch program in 1935 during the depression by taking
a wagon to the train depot to pick up surplus government food. One of the
neighboring families agreed to cook meals for the school in exchange for the
leftovers.
By 1941, the
Ellison School had an enrollment of more than 300 students and a staff of three
to four teachers. Mr. Ellison served as the Ellison Elementary School principal
through 1959.
I hope to leave a monument to my life when I pass on -- a good
school for my people in Calhoun Falls.
Oscar Ellison, Sr.
|
What Happened
|
In 1999, the
SCDOT selected a consultant to prepare an Environmental Assessment under the
National Environmental Policy Act, for widening 15.5 miles of 2-lane SC 72 from
Richard B. Russell Lake, the western terminus, to SC 28, the eastern terminus.
Calhoun Falls is located approximately 3 miles east of the lake and
approximately 10 miles west of SC 28.
In early
October 1999, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the SCDOT project
team held kickoff meetings in Calhoun Falls and in Abbeville with
representatives of both Calhoun Falls and Abbeville County. The purpose of the
meetings was to provide an overview of the EA process and a schedule for the
project, to solicit input from the town and county as to their needs and
concerns, and to identify the best way to involve the residents in the process.
|
Lee Street
in Bucknelly west of the Ellison Community Center.
|
Six alternatives for SC 72 through and around Calhoun Falls were
presented to residents at public involvement workshops.
Project
Chronology October 1999
First meeting held with FHWA, SCDOT and their consultant (the project
team), and representatives of the town of Calhoun Falls and Abbeville County.
Alternatives are defined and the public involvement process is discussed.
October
1999
Consultant's field studies completed. Bucknelly community is
identified and it is discovered that it will be divided by an alternative.
January
2000
Second meeting held with the project team and representatives from
the town of Calhoun Falls and Abbeville County. The disproportionately high and
adverse impacts to African-American residents in the Bucknelly community are
discussed frankly. The project team decides to show residents the six
alternatives.
February
2000
First series of workshops held in Calhoun Falls and Abbeville --
only 11 African Americans are among the 156 residents who attend the workshops.
These residents favor the yellow brick road and Abbeville County's purple
southern bypass.
February 2000
Project team decides to hold an
additional meeting -- in the Bucknelly community -- to draw more local
community attendance.
April
2000
Bucknelly community meeting held and attended by 77 residents.
Community favors the yellow brick road and does not want the community divided.
April
2000
Project team decides to carry the yellow brick road and Abbeville
County's purple southern bypass further. Detailed engineering undertaken for
these two alternatives.
June
2000
Second series of workshops held in Calhoun Falls at the town hall
and at the Ellison Community Center. Yellow brick road is the overwhelming
choice.
June
2000
Project team recommends the yellow brick road as the EA's
Preferred Alternative.
September
2000
Public
hearing planned to present findings.
|
While the town and
the county wanted to improve SC 72 and agreed that the purpose of the project
was to sustain and enhance economic development, they differed in how to
accomplish this. The discussion began by presenting three alternatives for
using some or all of the existing alignment of SC 72. Each alternative would
affect residential and commercial structures along and/or off of SC 72. The
mayor of Calhoun Falls agreed that it was important that SC 72 go through town,
but he did not want to widen the existing roadway. He wanted the project not
only to support the existing downtown and improve access to the mill, but also
to maximize opportunities for increasing economic development at the town's
existing industrial park and developing the second-home community. He suggested
an alignment that would leave SC 72 west of SC 81, cross SC 81 at a
new location between
SC 72 and the railroad, skirt the northern edge of the downtown core, run south
of the mill along the railroad and pass through the existing industrial park
before returning to SC 72 east of the town limits.
The Abbeville County
representatives wanted to bypass Calhoun Falls completely and proposed a new
alignment that would leave SC 72 west of SC 81, cross SC 81 at a new location,
continue south of the town limits, and return to SC 72 east of the town limits.
They felt a bypass could open large undeveloped areas for industrial
development without slowing the flow of traffic.
| Given the wide range of alternatives, the project team recognized
that public involvement workshops were essential to engage residents in the
process. While project-specific web sites had been used successfully in other rural
areas to advertise these workshops and keep residents current with the project,
they were not feasible in this case because of limited computer ownership and
access. Instead, the team decided that newsletters would be a more appropriate
way to reach the residents with project information. The town offered to
include the newsletters as part of the mailing of its monthly water bills and
to put up posters prior to each workshop. Because illiteracy was a potential
issue for some residents, packets of newsletters and posters would also be sent
to both white and African-American ministers who would be asked to make
announcements from their pulpits on the Sunday before the scheduled public
involvement workshops. In addition, notices would appear in the two local
newspapers, although illiteracy could minimize the value of this tool and
readership was thought be low in certain communities, thereby reducing the
effectiveness of this tool. |
The
Participants
- Federal
Highway Administration,
South Carolina Division
- South
Carolina Department of Transportation
- Calhoun
Falls Mayor and Town Council
- Calhoun
Falls Chamber of Commerce
- Abbeville
County Council
- Abbeville
County Economic Development Board
|
In late October
1999, SCDOT's consultant conducted various field studies. Informal discussions
with local residents provided crucial details for some of these studies. For
example, during the week spent in the area, the project team ate breakfast at
the Kuntry Kitchen, a small one-room, mom-and-pop eatery where millworkers
stopped for coffee. The walls were filled with black and white photographs of
Calhoun Falls in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Noticing new faces, the owner
told the project team the stories behind each photograph and said the
photographer still lived on Savannah Street. For a day, the photographer drove
around town with the project team's architectural historian helping to date the
age of buildings and identify who had lived or worked there. Similarly, a
discussion with a retired mill employee at a local hardware store gave the
project team information about two cotton mill landfills that was not recorded
anywhere else.
It was during this
field trip that the project team identified the Bucknelly community. Bucknelly
is an historically African-American neighborhood situated along the eastern side of one of
the town's railroads, and south of Seneca Street, which was one block south of
Savannah Street. During this visit, the team realized that Bucknelly would be
divided by one project alternative that widened existing SC 72 through town.
A second meeting was
held in early January 2000 with representatives of Calhoun Falls and Abbeville
County. The purpose of this meeting was to present the pros and cons of the six
alternatives through and around Calhoun Falls; leave draft copies of the first
newsletter for comments; and discuss the dates, places, and times for the first
set of public involvement workshops. The six alternatives under consideration
included a northern bypass, the mayor's alternative, three alternatives that
used some or all of existing SC 72, and Abbeville County's southern bypass.
Each alternative was discussed and the community-impact implications on
Bucknelly were identified. It was decided that rather than eliminate any of the
alternatives, the residents should be allowed to comment on all of the
alternatives.
In order to attract
residents from Calhoun Falls and those living between Calhoun Falls and
Abbeville, it was decided that one workshop should be held in the western end
of the project area (at the Calhoun Falls town hall), and one in the eastern
end of the project area (at the Abbeville County Council chamber in the Opera
House). Because Wednesday night is traditionally church night for some in the
South, and Friday
night is the beginning of the weekend, Tuesday and Thursday were chosen for the
workshops.
The workshops were
carefully sited and scheduled to meet the needs of various populations. The
workshop at town hall was held between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. to accommodate
elderly residents -- who could visit and leave before dark -- and two late
shifts of workers from the nearby mill. The Abbeville workshop was held between
3:30 p.m. (again to accommodate the elderly) and 6:30 p.m. because the timing
of mill shifts was less of an issue for Abbeville's workforce. The County
Council chamber in the Abbeville Opera House was chosen because it was a
well-known landmark.
|
The Mayor
of Calhoun Falls' suggested alignment, the yellow brick road, would widen
Abbeville Street between the mill and the Northside Baptist Church.
|
Notices and
articles in local newspapers, on posters, and in the newsletters publicized the
first series of public involvement workshops. The posters were hung in the
windows of shops and businesses and in other high-traffic areas, including near
the trash dumpsters at the regional pick-up sites where county residents
brought their trash. As planned, packets of newsletters and posters were sent
to local ministers. The newsletter centerfold showed the six alternatives
superimposed on an aerial photograph of the town. A letter of the alphabet and
a color identified each of the alternatives. The mayor's alternative was labeled Alternative B and
shown in yellow. Following the first set of workshops, this alternative became
known among the project team as "the yellow brick road."
The town had
originally proposed including the newsletter in its monthly water bills, but by
January 2000, it had adopted a postcard format for the bills. Using the town's
water customer list and information obtained from the county tax assessor, the
project team sent newsletters by first-class mail to 381 residents throughout
the project area. The project team was able to refine its mailing list because
the post office will return undeliverable first-class mail to the sender. Tax
assessor information in Abbeville County was not computerized and could have
been months out of date; ultimately, the project team had more faith in the
water customer list because it was updated monthly.
|
At each workshop,
residents were asked to sign in, received a comment sheet and newsletter, and
were escorted to the displays. Members of the project team explained the
displays and asked the residents to complete their comment sheets and return
them during the workshop or by mail or fax. The Calhoun Falls workshop in was
attended by 118 residents, 11 of whom were African American. Forty-seven
comment sheets were returned. The yellow brick road was the preferred choice,
with the Abbeville County's purple southern bypass a distant second. Many of
the white residents living along existing SC 72 had placed stakes in their
yards marking the proposed right-of-way. These residents attended the workshop
as an organized group and were vocal about not wanting existing SC 72 widened
through town. Only one resident opposed the alternative that would have divided
the Bucknelly community.
No African Americans
were among the 38 residents attending the workshop in Abbeville. The majority
of these residents came because they were interested in an adjacent SCDOT
project. As a result, only two residents returned comment sheets.
|
Bucknelly
residents came out in greater numbers for a workshop held at the nearby Ellison
Community Center.
|
After the
workshops, the project team decided that another way had to be found to engage
the Bucknelly community. It was also decided that no further workshops needed
to be held in Abbeville. The project team felt that it was important to
actively involve the Bucknelly community because some of the proposed
alternatives would generate disproportionately high and adverse effects upon
its predominantly minority population. No one knew why so few African Americans
attended the workshop. This question was not to be answered until a community
meeting was held in Bucknelly.
In an attempt
to obtain input, the project team decided to invite only the members of the
Bucknelly community to a meeting at the Ellison Community Center. This meeting
was scheduled from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. the day after Easter Sunday. It was
hoped that announcing the meeting from pulpits when churches would be full
would increase attendance at a workshop held the very next day.
|
The project team
used the town's water customer list and a list of the streets within the
Bucknelly community to identify 209 residents. Bucknelly residents were sent a
first-class letter signed by the mayor inviting them to attend the community
meeting and stressing the importance of their participation. Approximately 10
percent of these letters were returned by the post office to the mayor's office
as undeliverable. The mayor took the letters to the water authority and asked
that addresses be checked against the customer list. They were found to be the
same. Rather than remail the letters, the mayor hand delivered them to the
Bucknelly residents. In addition, copies of the mayor's letter and copies of
the first newsletter were sent to ministers at each of the four
African-American churches in Calhoun Falls. On Easter Sunday, each of the
ministers announced the Bucknelly community meeting from their pulpits.
Seventy-seven
Bucknelly residents attended the community meeting at the Ellison Community
Center, including, Henry Ellison, the youngest son of Oscar Ellison, for whom
the Ellison School and later Community Center were named. While neither Mr. Ellison nor any of his
family still live in Calhoun Falls, he returns to Bucknelly for special
occasions. He was in town to award educational scholarships funded by the
Ellison Foundation. Mr. Ellison was one of the first to arrive at the meeting
and the last to leave. For most of the evening, he stood off to the side of the
displays. As members of the community arrived, they sought him out to pay their
respects. While he was an absentee patriarch, it was obvious that those middle
aged and older held him in high esteem. Before the meeting, Mr. Ellison and the
mayor had gone door to door urging the residents to attend the meeting.
In addition to the
77 Bucknelly residents, 4 white residents attended the community meeting "just
to see if what the Bucknelly residents were being shown was different than what
they had been shown at the earlier Calhoun Falls meeting." Forty comment sheets
were returned. Project team members took special care to assist Bucknelly
residents who had "left their glasses at home" by offering to write down their
comments after they had been shown the displays on various alternatives. A tape
recorder was also available to take oral comments, but there were none.
The Bucknelly
community overwhelmingly preferred the yellow brick road alternative and did
not want the community divided. After the Bucknelly meeting, the project team
decided to drop four of the alternatives. Only the yellow brick road and
Abbeville County's purple southern bypass alternatives were to be carried
forward and studied in more detail.
More detailed
engineering was undertaken during May and June 2000, the second newsletter was
prepared and sent by
first-class mail to 713 residents, and the second series of workshops was
scheduled. The project team decided to hold workshops at both the Calhoun Falls
town hall and the Ellison Community Center on a June afternoon and evening
between 4:00 and 9:00 p.m. This was an opportunity for all communities to visit
both locations if they chose and to see that the same information was presented
at both locations.
| The "Disproportionately High and Adverse Effects" Test -- Recognizing
Cumulative Effects
How does a
transportation practitioner determine if a project or proposal is going to have
"disproportionately high and adverse effects" on a low-income population or
minority population? Adverse effects are all significant individual or
cumulative health or environmental effects, including interrelated social and
economic effects. If such effects are predominantly borne by a minority
population or low-income population, or if those populations would suffer
greater or more severe impacts than others, then the effects are
disproportionate (for complete definitions, see DOT Order 5610.2 and FHWA Order
6640.23).
The public
involvement process can be a revealing means for understanding how community
perceptions, including mistrust of government, are shaped by a cumulative
pattern of past public investments and facility sitings. It was not until one
of the Bucknelly residents mailed in comments did the project team begin to
understand the reluctance of the African American community to participate more
fully in the process:
I strongly
suspect, as I write you my comments concerning the various proposed routings of
a four lane S.C. Hwy 72 thru the Calhoun Falls area, that you have already made
your decision, and were just going thru the motions of giving the
African-American community the illusion of thinking our input is being
seriously considered, thus satisfying laws mandated by the federal government.
Forgive me if I am skeptical, but in the past, we were never given the
opportunity to give our input to something of this magnitude. The Ellison
Center where the meeting was held, is where I attended elementary school. I was
in the first grade when the historically precedent setting, Brown vs. Board of
Education was passed (1952/53) by the U.S. Supreme Court, making it
unconstitutional and against the law to have separate schools for the races.
This law of the land was not enforced in our town until 1970. This
caused me to be bussed from the 8th grade thru 12th grade 15 miles to Abbeville
to the only Colored high school in the county, at the time, while passing the
white high school that was only one mile from my home. So you see I am
very skeptical for a myriad of reasons when it comes to we African-Americans
being seriously considered in the decision making process. Currently as
I write, the cesspool/waste treatment center for the town of Calhoun Falls sits
right in the middle of OUR African-American residential community, NOT in the
middle of the white community. We also had several meetings about this, and
it still remains there. So I am sure you get my drift. However, the fact
that you even went thru the motions to hear what we had to say, be it a sham or
not, is in itself a milestone to us. Therefore, just in case you are seriously
considering our comments this is what I have to say . . .
|
|
The post
office returned 47 newsletters as undeliverable. These included ones sent to a
street address when the resident had a post office box, or vice versa. The
postmaster was kind enough to write the post office box number or street
address on the returned newsletter so that the mailing list could be corrected
and the newsletter remailed. At the second set of workshops, the residents were
asked if they had a street address and a post office box. When names or
addresses were illegible, web sites such as www.anywho.com were used to link
names and addresses, but this only worked if the resident had telephone
service.
Seventy-one
African-American Bucknelly residents and six white residents from other parts
of town attended the Bucknelly workshop. They returned 53 comment sheets. The
workshop at town hall was attended by 68 residents, including 8 African
Americans, and 19 comment sheets were returned. The residents at both workshops
overwhelmingly wanted the yellow brick road because of what it could do for the
town.
|
Buildings
that will be taken by the new SC 72/SC 81 intersection west of downtown Calhoun
Falls.
|
While the yellow
brick road has adverse effects for some commercial businesses, it also presents
an opportunity to address some areas in need of redevelopment. Study of the
detailed engineering drawings had shown that the yellow brick road would affect
17 buildings on the northern edge of the downtown and 2 mobile homes. Almost
half of buildings were vacant and the mobile homes could be moved. Because of
the available vacant parcels in the downtown and the compensation that the
owners would receive, it was believed that many of these owners would rebuild.
One building involved was the town's garage for its garbage trucks. This
building was in poor condition and would be replaced through the FHWA's
Functional Replacement Program. The yellow brick road also changed the
circulation within the downtown. This change would provide better access and
improve emergency response time for the police and fire departments. As part of
the design, the existing substandard railroad crossing at the mill would be
upgraded and signalized, and both the mill and the town's existing
industrial park would enjoy front-door, five-lane accessibility.
Following the second
series of workshops, the project team met and decided that the yellow brick
road should be the Environmental Assessment's preferred alternative.
The
"Disproportionately High and Adverse Effects" Test --
More than a
Desktop Exercise
The evaluation
of disproportionately high and adverse impacts often begins at the planner's
desk as a conventional analytical exercise using existing maps, aerial
photographs, census, and other data. Combining this "desktop" data, some
project impacts can be screened in advance. For example, some alternatives
would require the taking of more houses in minority neighborhoods, while others
would require the elimination of more open space.
The map,
however, is not the territory. No area can be completely understood on the
basis of maps and secondary data sets alone. Only when the SC 72 project team
made field visits to Calhoun Falls did they begin to recognize the true impacts
of the alternative alignments. The project team did what transportation
professionals should do to learn about a community.
Making
Choices: Do the Right Thing!
At any stage
in the project development process, the transportation practitioner may be
confronted with evidence that a program, policy, or activity that they are
involved in has disproportionately high and adverse human health or
environmental effects on a low-income or minority population. Further, they may
discover that their project's adverse effects occur in a community already
burdened with a disproportionate share of facilities that generate adverse
human health or environmental effects. It's possible the practitioner may
discover a pattern of such disparate effects or, even, discriminatory
practices. For many transportation practitioners, such discoveries are
uncomfortable; they fall outside the traditional concerns of a profession
focused upon technical accuracy and analytical excellence. Still, the Calhoun
Falls case offers some pointers about how to confront this dilemma and accept a
call to personal responsibility:
- Commit
to Effective Public Involvement. Budgeting for, and carrying out field
visits and other local information gathering efforts is an important first
step. Project budget constraints can press project
- managers or
funders into taking shortcuts that reduce outreach efforts. However, allocating
resources for these activities up-front can actually save money in the long run
as problems are discovered and addressed.
- Listen
to Your Instincts. The SC 72 project team leader was dismayed that so few
African Americans turned out for the first community workshop. She reasoned,
correctly, that a special outreach effort would more effectively draw Bucknelly
residents into the decision-making process.
- Promote
Technical Approaches Sensitive to Community Input. The preferred alignment
for SC 72, "the yellow brick road," was developed by local leaders -- not the
project team. After talking to leaders and the community residents, however,
the project team saw the wisdom of the alignment and recognized that its
impacts were actually smaller than those of other alignments that took fewer
existing buildings. Simply put, on the issues that mattered, the alignment fit
more harmoniously into the community.
- The
"Disproportionately High and Adverse Effects" Test is NOT the Sole Criterion
for Addressing Community Impacts. Avoidance, minimization, and mitigation
strategies are often used by the FHWA and its partners, even when the effects
of a project are not considered significant. By attending even to apparently
small impacts, project teams enhance community acceptance and promote
context-sensitive solutions.
- Go the
Extra Mile. Transportation projects are produced in a group setting, with
many people sharing different responsibilities. When a professional identifies
a potential environmental justice issue, it may be difficult to successfully
bring it to the attention of the rest of the project team. Don't be deterred by
this difficulty. Doing the right thing may not be easy, but it will result in
better, more just, and more broadly supported transportation projects. And that
should be everyone's professional goal.
|
Effective Environmental Justice Practices This case study
illustrates several effective practices related to community impact assessment
and public involvement. Project team members left their offices and made
several field visits to the study area and Calhoun Falls. The project team did
what transportation professionals should do to learn about a community:
- Walk
Around. By experiencing the community on a human scale, the project team
was able to clearly identify the Bucknelly community and examine firsthand the
potential effects of alternative alignments for SC 72.
- Learn the
History. The African-American community in Bucknelly had a deep history,
one often clouded by
discrimination and disenfranchisement. The project team heard about some of
these past problems firsthand. The team's visit to Calhoun Falls revealed a
positive history as well, such as the importance of the Ellison
School/Community Center and the role of the Ellison family as community
leaders. Knowing these crucial facts helped the project team build successful
community outreach and overcome initial community skepticism.
- Tailor Public
Involvement to Unique Local Needs. With the help and encouragement of local
officials, the project team ensured that community outreach efforts were
targeted and accessible to everyone who might be affected by the project. The
team made a particular point of making and maintaining contact with the
Bucknelly community residents. Expanding upon traditional outreach efforts such
as newsletters and workshops, the team took account of Bucknelly's unique needs
and made sure that all residents were informed of the highway project. The team
reached out to the community through the churches, took account of local
problems such as illiteracy, and took advantage of the involvement of community
leaders to encourage broad-based participation. Even the normally simple task
of developing and maintaining a project mailing list was given extra scrutiny
to ensure that the needs of Calhoun Falls' African-American community were
being met.
- Listen to
Everyone's Story. Communication with local officials, the general public,
and the African-American residents of Bucknelly all helped the project team to
better understand local needs. This successful outreach led directly to
identifying a highway alignment that was widely approved by the public.
- Let the
Community Describe Its "Disproportionately High and Adverse Effects." By
listening to Bucknelly residents, project team members were able to
learn about past "adverse impacts" on the minority population, like the siting
of the town's wastewater treatment plant. This context was crucial for
evaluating the direct, indirect, and cumulative effects of the highway proposal
on the Bucknelly community.
Challenges Ahead As this case study
is written, the Environmental Assessment for the SC 72 improvement project is
not yet complete. To fulfill the promise of their efforts so far, SCDOT and the
project team must continue to reach out to and involve the Bucknelly community
in project decision making. Efforts similar to those already undertaken will be
necessary throughout the environmental review process. The ultimate design and
construction of the improved roadway will also require extensive and inclusive
public involvement. Those who worked on these early phases of the project must
find ways to communicate their experiences and successes to those responsible
for final design and construction of the roadway.
The case study also
demonstrates how the perception (and reality) of past discrimination can affect
public participation in a planning process. The Bucknelly community felt that
it had been the town's dumping ground in the past, and residents were therefore
quite skeptical of the project team's initial outreach efforts. Only a
persistent and consistent pattern of contact and communication can overcome
such past discrimination.
|
Benefits of
Environmental Justice in Decision Making
For the
Public:
- The
public developed a deeper understanding of, and support for transportation
improvements in and around Calhoun Falls that they believed fit more
harmoniously into the community.
-
African-American residents from the Bucknelly community were encouraged to
increase their involvement in the community impact assessment and
transportation decision-making process.
- The
project raised expectations among residents of the Bucknelly community for
future consultation and consent on public works projects.
For the
Agency:
- The
approach improved communication between SCDOT and its constituents. Because of
its outreach to the Bucknelly community, the project team developed a more
complete understanding of the impacts of the various alternatives. Contact with
local residents provided crucial pieces of information that improved the
quality of the environmental assessment and informed the decision-making
process.
- The
preferred alternative was understood and supported by a strong majority of the
community, including people whose voices had seldom been heard in prior
decision-making efforts.
|
Lessons Learned This case study has
important implications for any transportation professional interested in
improving the quality and value of public outreach in the transportation
planning process.
-
Begin to
coordinate with local community representatives immediately and continue
throughout the entire process. It is important to talk with these
representatives on a frequent basis, even when there may be nothing new to
tell, because they are the lifelines into the community.
-
Good public
involvement occurs on front porches, in living rooms, and under clotheslines.
Planners must get out of the office and interact with the community, otherwise,
there will be no public involvement.
-
Understand that
some residents of minority or low-income communities probably will not trust
officials or planners immediately and, in some cases, there may never be trust.
This should not diminish the dedication of the effort or the goal to be
reached.
-
Be willing to
try anything when it comes to reaching the target audience. Use the web, public
service announcements, the public broadcasting system, and newsletters or
flyers. Put posters where people gather -- grocery stores, trash dumpsters,
bait shops, hardware store, banks, places of employment, restaurants, gas
stations, schools, theaters, churches. Feed information to the local newspaper
for articles, make project representatives available to them, and ensure that
media know the time and location of public involvement meetings. Send mail by
first-class rather than by bulk-rate permit so that mailings lists can be
monitored and updated. Send information packets to the local ministers so they
can make announcements from their pulpits. Because some in the target audience
may be illiterate or not speak English, find ways to help them participate that
will not embarrass them. For example, color-code the alternatives rather than
labeling them just by name or letter. Listen to residents' responses to
questions, and repeat their concerns back to them so they will know that their
concerns have been heard. Visit places where community members spend time
(hardware store, barbershop, gas station) and talk to them there. Pay
particular attention to the obvious -- what is seen -- as well as what should
be seen.
Establishing workshops, publicizing articles,
involving churches, advertising in businesses, and making house-to-house visits
were all skillful tactics for involvement. I learned that going the extra mile,
establishing relationships, and having a determination for active participation
will bring positive results.
Johnnie Waller
Calhoun Falls Mayor
References Walter Edgar,
South Carolina, A History. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South
Carolina Press, 1998.
Ernest McPherson
Lander, Jr., Tales of Calhoun Falls. Spartanburg, South Carolina: The
Reprint Company, 1991.
Contacts
Carol Adkins
FHWA South Carolina Division Office
1835 Assembly Street, Suite 1270
Columbia, SC 29201
(803) 765-5460
Anne C. Morris
Environmental Planning Director
Wilbur Smith Associates
P.O. Box 92
Columbia, SC 29202
(803) 251-3011
Clint Scoville
SCDOT Assistant Program Manager
P.O. Box 191
Columbia, SC 29202
(803) 737-2085
Johnnie Waller,
Mayor
Town of Calhoun Falls
P.O. Box 246
Calhoun Falls, South
Carolina 29628
(864) 447-8512
FHWA Home | FTA
Home | Cases | EJ Contact
United States
Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration - Federal
Transit Administration
|
