§ 572.410 - Environmental procedures and standards.

(a) Planning grants. HUD has determined that its approval of applications for planning grants under this part is categorically excluded from environmental review and compliance requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and that other Federal environmental laws and authorities listed in 24 CFR 50.4 are not applicable.

(b) Implementation grants. (1) Recipients of implementation grants must comply with the applicable environmental laws and authorities at 24 CFR 50.4 and must:

(i) Supply HUD with information necessary for it to perform any necessary environmental review of the property (or neighborhood);

(ii) Carry out mitigating measures required by HUD or select alternate eligible property; and

(iii) Not acquire or otherwise carry out program activities with respect to any eligible property until HUD approval for the property (or neighborhood) is received.

(2) Before any amounts under this part are used to acquire or rehabilitate an eligible property, HUD must determine whether the proposed activities trigger applicability thresholds for the applicable Federal environmental laws and authorities. These may apply when the property is:

(i) Located within designated coastal barriers;

(ii) Listed on, or eligible for listing on, the National Register of Historic Places; or is located within, or adjacent to, an historic district;

(iii) Located near hazardous operations handling fuels or chemicals of an explosive or flammable nature;

(iv) Contaminated by toxic chemicals or radioactive materials;

(v) Located within a runway clear zone at a civil airport or within a clear zone or accident potential zone at a military airfield; or

(vi) Located within a special flood hazard area or within a location requiring flood insurance protection.

(3) A recipient may choose to make the threshold reviews itself or with assistance from State or local governments or qualified persons or to refer the property to HUD for threshold review. Where the recipient makes the threshold review itself, it must submit the result to HUD.

(4) If a recipient chooses not to make the threshold reviews, it must submit information to HUD to permit HUD to make the review.

(5) If HUD determines on the basis of the recipient's threshold review or HUD's threshold review that one or more of the thresholds are exceeded, HUD will conduct an environmental review of that issue and, if appropriate, establish mitigating measures that the recipient must carry out for the property unless it decides to select an alternate property.