When it comes to local land-use agreements, Sean Curtis, interim planning director of Modoc County, California, believes coordination between local and federal government agencies in the planning phase is essential for the benefit of local citizens.
"We decided, back in the early 1990s, that there had to be a better way to address the impacts that federal planning and activities had on our local government and communities. The idea of having a few weeks to comment on a plan that had taken years to develop just wasn’t working," Curtis said.
"It is important to remember that coordination is the structure under which local government addresses the specific issues that impact their citizens. It is equally important to keep in mind that coordination never stops. Not only does federal planning continue, but just as important, education of the process must be ongoing ... local governments must continue to be persistent in the demand for coordination rather than some other process."
According to "The Policy Coordination Guide for Local Governments," published by American Stewards of Liberty, coordination is a process mandated by federal statutes that aims to resolve conflicts and achieve consistent policies across federal, state and local governments by harmonizing their plans. Federal laws, including the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the National Forest Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, contain specific directives for agencies to coordinate with each other and among state and local governments. The coordination process aims to establish consistent policies and plans across all levels of government.
Approximately 640 million acres of land, which is about 28% of the total land in the country, is owned by the federal government. Four agencies administer 609 million acres of this land: Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service in the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture.
Congress has directed federal agencies to coordinate their land use planning and regulatory actions with state and local governments. Coordination is made possible for state and local governments because they have the authority to govern and are responsible for protecting the health, safety and welfare of their citizens.
The coordination process is an open and public forum that adheres to the state's open meeting laws, conducted through public meetings and correspondence between federal agencies and local governments. It allows the public to listen and read the discussions, although they are not active participants. Through this process, inconsistencies between government plans, policies and objectives are identified, discussed and resolved, which informs the environmental analysis and shapes policies within the federal plan or project proposed.
According to Margaret Byfield of American Stewards of Liberty, as it relates to privately held land, coordination is often required for issues that impact private lands, especially when reviewing projects under the National Environmental Policy Act. The purpose of coordination, under the National Environmental Policy Act, is not to achieve consistency between federal, state, and local plans, but rather to ensure that the impacts on local governments and their responsibilities (such as protecting the health, safety, and welfare of people) are fully analyzed.
