NGA and its Next NGA West team received national recognition with an American Planning Association award for their environmental planning related to the construction of NGA’s new campus in North City St. Louis.

The Next NGA West team was awarded a national citation for 'Outstanding Environmental Planning Project' for 2017 by the Federal Planners Division of the American Planning Association. Judges for this competition were selected from the federal planning agency community, consultants and fellows from the American Institute of Certified Planners and American Institute of Architects.

“This is national recognition of our outstanding effort in the environmental planning category,” said Tom Bukoski, N2W deputy program director “This prestigious award is in a very competitive category and recognizes the Next NGA West team’s professional excellence and demonstrated competence in the very complex environmental planning process.”

The environmental planning team included representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and multiple supporting contractors.

The APA panel used several criteria to judge the winners in the Federal Planners Division category. They evaluated the team’s Environmental Impact Statement for planning and innovation, integration, effectiveness and results. 

“The environmental planning team for this project worked closely together to complete this EIS within an accelerated schedule of 19 months,” said Bukoski. “Documents of this complexity and importance often take 24 to 30 months to complete due to the comprehensive nature of the content and the necessity of extensive research, public outreach and assessment.”

The team completed the EIS after extensive interaction and coordination with federal and state agencies, and historic preservation officials in Missouri and Illinois.  

The Next NGA West EIS covered a wide range of topics for the original four sites that were in consideration for project. It analyzed environmental impacts to soil, water, air, traffic, socio-economic, environmental justice, economic impacts, and visual-compatibility, cultural and historic resources. 

“This EIS process included multiple creative public involvement and mitigation strategies that were developed by our expert team of planners and technical specialists,” said Laurie Farmer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers senior program manager. “The EIS certainly was a key contributing document that reinforced NGA’s decision to select the North City location over the other sites that were under consideration.”   

The American Planning Association provides leadership in the development of vital communities by advocating excellence in planning, promoting education and citizen empowerment.