Coatesville is a town about 45 miles east of Philadelphia, and they want to refurbish their train station and build some transit-oriented development around it. The town really took off around the turn of the last century with the Lukens Steel Company, and because the train line was the town’s primary link to the outside world, development was concentrated around the station. But I guess being the epicenter of a century-old town doesn’t excuse you from the wrath of the mighty environmental review:
If PennDOT and other stakeholders can settle on a plan and deal with some environmental issues at the site, Fauver hopes the state will begin the federally mandated environmental assessment process in March or April, which will take about a year.
In contrast to locally-imposed environmental reviews, this time it’s the feds who are asking for it, probably since the station is served by Amtrak. In other words, it’s not something that greenfield McMansion developers on the outskirts of town have to endure. A federal twist on the familiar environmentalism vs. density theme.
The reason that federal environmental review has to be completed is because the project is using federal funding. All federally funded project have to have environmental assessments. This was required in response to the massive highway projects in the 60s that destroyed towns by using federal funds to cut through them. Still, you are right, it does favor sprawl development and projects which don’t require federal funding. Still the requirement for environmental review has its basis in a need to ensure the least harmful use of federal funding.