Most states have policies in place that determine whether noise abatement is necessary and reasonable/feasible for Type I projects. These policies mirror federal guidance and apply to various land uses near the proposed project. Special land use facilities such as parks, churches and schools are included in the policy as far as when abatement may be necessary (i.e. the Federal Highway Administration Noise Abatement Criteria), but the determination of whether the abatement is reasonable and/or feasible is not adequately addressed. A survey of state Departments of Transportation (DOT) indicated that states are dealing with this need for reasonable/feasible determination for special land uses, but do not have formal policy in place to address the issue. Often, it may be feasible to provide abatement for these special land uses but is it reasonable to use limited funds for noise abatement? A systematic procedure is needed to eliminate arbitrary decisions.
The purpose of this research was to develop a methodology for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) that would aid FDOT in the development of a procedure for special land use cases. The proposed procedure will provide guidance for those individuals preparing environmental documents allowing a decision process using a systematic approach to determine whether abatement is reasonable for special land uses. The development process of the Reasonableness Matrix for special land uses is explained and an overview of the finalized policy along with details concerning the development of the methodology is presented. The update to this report was required to reflect the changes in cost reasonable factors currently used by FDOT and changes to the Census data for Florida. No other changes to the report were made that did not reflect the two factors noted above.
