Next Steps
The Washington State Legislature established
the Transportation Permit Efficiency and
Accountability Committee (TPEAC) in 2001 to find ways to streamline permit
processes for transportation projects and achieve
better environmental outcomes. TPEAC brought
together a collaborative group of problem solvers to
address the many environmental challenges tied to
transportation project delivery in Washington State.
The stakeholder relationships fostered by TPEAC,
combined with use of new TPEAC tools and processes,
will have a lasting impact on the culture and
practices of environmental regulation in Washington
State.
TPEAC work serves as a model for collaborative,
multi-stakeholder efforts. The model results in
increased regulatory efficiency and high
environmental standards. Successful
multi-stakeholder processes require the following:
- All the stakeholders need to be at the table;
- Leadership must be clear and consistent;
- A mandate for collaboration must exist; and
- Resources (time and money) must be
directly appropriated to the process.
Looking ahead, state and federal resource agencies,
Tribes, local governments, and the Washington State
Department of Transportation (WSDOT) need ongoing
relationships to continue and expand on the work of
TPEAC after March 2006. To support and foster continued
collaboration, TPEAC encourages the following:
- Utilize and promote the TPEAC website:
This website captures the origins, evolution,
accomplishments, and lessons learned from TPEAC
– the TPEAC experience. The website is a
resource for individuals and governments seeking
a collaborative approach to the challenges of
environmental permitting and mitigation.
- Document and spotlighting successful
collaboration:
TPEAC notes that the
Governor’s Office of Regulatory Assistance (ORA)
and the Governor’s Regulatory Improvement
Program offer a significant point of leadership
for sustaining the interagency trust, shared
knowledge, and respect that developed among
TPEAC stakeholders. To this end, TPEAC
encourages ORA to use web-based and other
communication material to showcase the successes
and challenges of additional collaborative,
multi-stakeholder efforts in Washington State.
- Measure the ongoing progress of TPEAC’s
efforts:
Further gains can be made in a
collaborative interagency effort, using the
information gained through TPEAC to:
- Develop quantifiable performance measures.
- Commit to collect data that can be used as a
baseline for assessing our performance.
- Review and improve performance measures as we
learn from the data we collect.
