Cubit 2010 Newsletters

Indirect Impacts Survey

I researched 30 transportation EIS and EAs from various states that were published in 2009 or early 2010. Below are the 3 resources most often discussed in the indirects impacts section.

• Almost 100% of documents addressed Land Use
• Almost 70% addressed Traffic
• 47% addressed Socio-Economic Impacts

To see what percent of documents addressed other resources like Wetlands and Air Quality in the indirect impacts section, check out the blog post

Indirect Impacts in Recent Transportation EISs and EAs.

New Poverty Statistics Report

Cubit is talking to users about a new tool called the Poverty Statistics Report. It would provide cut-and-paste ready poverty statistics for your projects in seconds.

The poverty statistics come from 13 different data sources, like the American Community Survey, US Census, SNAP (food stamp) programs, Medicaid and National Center for Education Statistics.

If you think the Poverty Statistics Report would be a useful tool for your work, include your email address here. If we see enough interest, we’ll build the tool and let the people who provided email address pull free reports.

Why You Should Be Using Twitter

Anthony and I just got back from the National American Planning Association Conference in New Orleans. There was a lot of talk at the conference about using Twitter and other social media tools for public involvement
. To get more information, check out this blog post: Twitter Use by Planners at the APA 2010 Conference. It has:

• PowerPoint “Why Planners Should be on Twitter”
• Twitter Cheatsheet
• Video of the 2010 APA Twitter Booth
• 999 Tweets from the Conference
• The Most Re-tweeted Tweet of the Conference

You can learn more about using social media for public involvement by talking to us at the NAEP’s national conference next week or catching Kristen
‘s July 14th talk at the Austin Chapter of the Texas Association of Environmental Professionals.

– The Cubit Team

Environmental Justice and Toll Roads: The Past, Present and Future

Recently, Sarah Stroman and Brandy Huston of TxDOT and Jolanda Prozzi of the Center for Transportation Research at UT gave a presentation about Environmental Justice Analysis and Toll Roads.

Check out this blog post about their presentation: Environmental Justice Analysis for Toll Roads: The Past, Present & Future. You can:

• read Major Elements of Environmental Justice Analysis,
• get a copy of their PowerPoint or
• watch videos of their presentation.

New Feature: Upload A Project Shapefile

In the past, Cubit users had to draw their project areas on the interactive map by hand with line and polygon tools. Well, some of you guys are Piscassos-in-training, and there were some pretty weird shaped project areas out there.

So for more complex project areas, you can now send us a project shapefile, and we will upload it to your account. Learn more about uploading shapefiles here.

Top 7 Sources of Delay & Frustration in the NEPA Process

Below are the results from the Sources of Frustration & Delay in the NEPA Process survey that was completed by 98 NEPA professionals.

Impact Many NEPA projects

• Increased documentation levels (i.e. EAs now EIS size)
• Lengthy agency review or legal review
• Minor comments from agency that don’t improve decision-making
• Over-documentation

Result in Projects Being Stopped or Major Delays

• Changes in project scope or unclear project scope
• Lack of funding for the project
• Lengthy agency review or legal review
• Local controversy or lack of support

You can get more information about the survey results here: Results from the Sources of Frustration & Delay in the NEPA Process Survey.

– The Cubit Team

Census Data Is Sooooooooo 2000

When planners need demographic data, they often turn to the US Census. But Census 2000 data is now horribly outdated.

Learn how Dr. Richard Krannich uses Community Social Assessments to get more up-to-date data about communities. He gets a nearly 80% response rate!  Read how Dr. Krannich does it in the blog post Census Data is So 2000! – How to get data more recent than Census data.

Hazardous Materials Data

Hazardous materials data is one of the most often requested data reports that NEPA professionals ask Cubit for. And we don’t know why.

Could you help us figure it out? Tell us if you would or wouldn’t use Cubit for haz-mat data in this quick 2 question survey. Or contact us here.

Popular Real Estate Data in 2010 EISs

We conducted an unscientific survey of real estate data in 2010 EISs. According to our survey, the two most popular data points were:

• Homeownership Rates, and
• Median Home Values.

You can read about other popular data points in the blog post Real Estate Data in Environmental Impact Statements.

Recent Housing Data now part of the Housing & Regional Economics Report

The Housing and Regional Economic Report now has more recent housing data from the American Community Survey 2006-2008. This report also has Building Permit data. Check out the Housing and Regional Economic Report Sample. Let Kristen know what other data should be part of this report
by contacting her.

Cubit on Camera

Check out this short YouTube clip of Cubit’s Kristen and Anthony introducing environmental professionals to Twitter.  We had a blast talking about the 3 reasons why environmental professionals should be on Twitter at the Texas Association of Environmental Professional’s (TAEP) Conference.

– The Cubit Team

Get Free Housing & Economic Data Until January 31st

Get free housing and regional economic data plus maps and shapefiles in seconds. Check out the Housing & Regional Economics report (beta). This report includes data like home values, vacancy rates, unemployment data, jobs by industry, commute data and much more.

Learn how to get this data for free for your projects here.

THE Best Source for Agricultural Data

Recently, I’ve noticed a number of NEPA documents that now include detailed agricultural data.  The majority of these documents use the USDA’s Census of Agriculture.  Census of Agriculture data includes number of farms, acres of land in farms, estimated market value per acre, types of crops/livestock and more.

For step-by-step help on how to quickly get the most current Census of Agriculture data for your projects, check out the THE Best Agricultural Data for Environmental Impact Statements blog post.

Do you need Age & Disability data?

We’ve heard that you need disability and age data for your projects. Now this data is part of the Socio-Ec Data Report. Get this data for free until January 31st.

Read Free Age & Disability Data until January 31, 2010 to learn more.

Your Alternative Alignments Never Change, Right?

Do you even remember the last project you worked on where the preferred alternative never changed? No?  Then, you should learn more about Cubit subscriptions.

Cubit subscriptions ease the headaches of alternative analyses and indecisive engineers and  clients.  Learn more at Cubit’s pricing page.

– The Cubit Team