Section 1.01 states "Projects administered/developed by others that will be funded by federal and/or state funds must meet the Department’s guidelines for public participation."

Presumably by guidelines that means this Manual; however, this manual is catered to VDOT-administered projects referencing responsibility of specific job positions, IIMs, and other VDOT specific terminology. This statement of "must meet" would create ambiguity and a lack of followable guidelines for locality-administered projects with federal and/or state funds.

This manual needs to be clear and specific in requirements vs guidelines. If this manual is to be used as a tool, you can't mismatch the two together. Perhaps a separate appendix with strict requirements or geared towards locality-administered projects. 

Remove outdated practices. Posting in courthouses is outdated and not following intent of notifying the public. 

Clarify what the requirement actually is. For example "30 days prior" is that exactly 30 days? minimum 30 days? What if a newspaper doesn't publish every day, would 31 days work?