Jersey Heights Neighborhood Ass'n v. Glendening

174 F.3d 180, 29 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 21102, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 6088, 1999 WL 184610
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedApril 5, 1999
DocketNo. 98-1804
StatusPublished
Cited by79 cases

This text of 174 F.3d 180 (Jersey Heights Neighborhood Ass'n v. Glendening) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jersey Heights Neighborhood Ass'n v. Glendening, 174 F.3d 180, 29 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 21102, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 6088, 1999 WL 184610 (4th Cir. 1999).

Opinions

OPINION

WILKINSON, Chief Judge:

Residents of the community of Jersey Heights, Maryland challenge the siting of a new highway adjacent to their neighborhood. They assert claims against state and federal agencies and officials under the Federal-Aid Highway Act, the Nation[184]*184al Environmental Policy Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act, and the Maryland Environmental Policy Act, as well as the Equal Protection Clause and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985. On the defendants’ motions to dismiss, the district court found that the residents had failed to state a claim under the Fair Housing Act and that the rest of their claims were time-barred. The court then dismissed their complaint. Jersey Heights Neighborhood Ass’n v. Glendening, 2 F.Supp.2d 772 (D.Md.1998).

Appellants seek to derail this highway construction project years after the original siting decision was made. Most of their claims are now stale, and we affirm their dismissal. There is one exception: We reinstate as timely appellants’ challenge to the agencies’ decision not to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement in 1995. We also hold that appellants’ Title VI and section 1985 claims against the federal defendants are barred by sovereign immunity, and that appellants failed to state a claim under the Fair Housing Act. We therefore affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand this case for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.

Maryland intends, with federal funding assistance, to build a new Route 50 Bypass around the City of Salisbury in the eastern part of the State. Route 50 is the principal latitudinal artery spanning Maryland’s eastern peninsula. Constructed nearly a half-century ago, the highway serves the region’s commercial traffic and funnels seasonal vacationers from Baltimore and Washington to the seaside resort of Ocean City. At present, the route also passes directly through downtown Salisbury, where it doubles as a main thoroughfare for local traffic.

Officials began as early as 1975 to look for ways to alleviate the resulting traffic and congestion in downtown Salisbury. Their remedy of choice was to construct a bypass around the City. As with any public project of this magnitude, a long process of agency planning and public debate ensued.

In order to receive federal funding for the Bypass the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) was required to follow the approval process established under the Federal-Aid Highway Act (FAHA), 23 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. Although the details of this process have evolved since 1975, its essential mandates have remained constant. State planners must first choose a site for the highway, an endeavor requiring the consideration of alternative locations, community participation in public hearings, and preparation of environmental impact statements in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq. See 23 U.S.C. §§ 109,128; 23 C.F.R. Part 771. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has final approval authority over the final environmental impact statement (FEIS), and memorializes that approval by issuing a Record of Decision (ROD). 23 C.F.R. §§ 771.125, .127. Certification of compliance with FAHA’s public participation requirements and issuance of the ROD are “considered acceptance of the general project location.” Id. § 771.113. In projects like this one, subsequent phases of the project such as final engineering design, property acquisition, and actual construction “shall not proceed” until after location approval. Id. § 771.113; see also id. § 771.127.

The SHA began studying alternate locations for the Route 50 Bypass in 1976. Officials considered a number of different routes, held public meetings, and prepared a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). In 1981, however, the project was shelved for lack of funding.

In 1985 funding was restored, and the SHA again explored alternate highway routes. After a public meeting the SHA issued a new DEIS examining various alternatives and promoting one, dubbed Alternate 4, as the preferred corridor for the Bypass. Alternate 4 traverses two census [185]*185tracts to the north of Salisbury in Wicomi-co County, one of which has a greater than ninety percent African American population and the other of which apparently is predominately white. When the SHA issued the FEIS in May 1989, Alternate 4 remained the agency’s preferred route. On August 17, 1989, the FHWA issued a ROD granting location approval for Alternate 4.

Since 1989 the Bypass project has progressed slowly. Planners have pressed ahead, pursuing additional permits and preparing final engineering designs. And in 1997 Maryland’s Governor Parris Glen-dening announced that funding had been allocated for construction.

Meanwhile, opposition to the Bypass mushroomed in Jersey Heights, a predominately African American community lying just to the south of the highway’s approved location. In a series of meetings with SHA officials, community members alleged that they had been excluded from the highway planning process and voiced their objection to the siting of the Bypass. In 1994 residents filed an administrative complaint with the FHWA. After an investigation, the FHWA found that no discrimination had occurred in the siting process. That ruling has been appealed with the agency.

In September 1997 the Jersey Heights Neighborhood Association and a number of individual Jersey Heights residents (collectively the Neighborhood Association) filed this suit in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Their complaint named several federal, state, and local agencies and officials and asserted claims under FAHA, NEPA, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), 42 U.S.C. § 2000d et seq., the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3601 et seq., and the Maryland Environmental Policy Act, Md. Code Ann., Natural Resources § 1-301 et seq., as well as the Equal Protection Clause and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985.

Specifically, the Neighborhood Association alleged that African American residents did not receive individual notice that the Bypass was in the works or that public meetings were being held, even though similarly-situated white residents did. They further claimed that the DEIS and FEIS were based on inaccurate data, ignored socioeconomic impacts, and failed adequately to compare siting alternatives or mitigating measures.

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174 F.3d 180, 29 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 21102, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 6088, 1999 WL 184610, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jersey-heights-neighborhood-assn-v-glendening-ca4-1999.