A four-volume, 2,000-page strategy to protect endangered species
throughout the county from future development
– labelled the first draft of the Santa Clara Valley Habitat
Conservation Plan and the Natural Community Conservation Plan – is
out for review and comment.
A four-volume, 2,000-page strategy to protect endangered species throughout the county from future development – labelled the first draft of the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan and the Natural Community Conservation Plan – is out for review and comment.
The public comment period started Friday, and residents have 120 days – until April 18, 2011– to submit input and ask questions about the strategy to implement an imagined contiguous 500,000-acre swath, mostly in South County, to preserve and protect 21 endangered and threatened species. The plan is expected to be implemented in 2012 and continue for 50 years.
Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Jose, Santa Clara County, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the Valley Transportation Authority are participating in the plan which covers about 62 percent of the county’s acreage.
If approved, the habitat plan will sell permits to allow developers and home builders to build on the covered species’ habitat. Species covered under the plan include the Bay checkerspot butterfly, California red-legged frog and California tiger salamander.
Now such permits are required on projects that affect the species, but can only be obtained at the state and federal level, and developers typically are required to purchase comparable nearby land to mitigate any disturbance to the plant or animal in question. That process can take years due to the need for expert inspections, and keep projects in a regulatory purgatory that often leaves the builder guessing as to a construction schedule, according to SCVHCP program manager Ken Schreiber.
“The habitat plan would move the permitting down to the local level,” Schreiber said. “Project proponents would no longer have to go through a long process. That will save a lot of time, and what it provides is some certainty because you will know what conditions you will have to meet before a project even starts.”
The list includes 12 species of plants and animals that are currently endangered or threatened, plus another nine that might be listed in the next 30 years, according to Schreiber.
The costs of nearly $950 million associated with the plan over the next 50 years include the purchase of about 58,000 acres of undeveloped habitat, as well as the preservation and maintenance of the land and species. About 45 percent of the revenue for such costs will come from development permit fees, and the total acreage won’t be purchased until the 45th year.
Projected fee revenue is about $548 million. Other revenues include about $150 million in state and federal grants; $70 million in county parks acquisition; and $71 million in investment income from a land preservation endowment.
Most of the land to be purchased under the SCVHCP is in unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County.
Being able to issue species destruction permits at a more local level will likely hasten the permit process, according to former county supervisor and current water district director Don Gage, who has been involved in the drafting of the plan since he became county supervisor 14 years ago for the district that includes South County.
Currently, developers whose projects affect waterways or protected species must not only pass the local planning process and pay the associated fees, but also secure permits on their own time from state and federal authorities – mostly to ensure the development does not injure any animals covered by the Endangered Species Act.
Local governments will be allowed to issue state and federal permits as long as they ensure the acquisition and maintenance of a large, natural area.
Morgan Hill interim community development director Steve Piasecki said the plan is unlikely to require more city staff, and would simply pre-approve state and federal permits on property covered in the document so that builders would not have to wait for approval from higher layers.
A lot of the land in the SCVHCP is “undevelopable,” or is located on farms and in the hillsides, Gage said, emphasizing the importance of enacting the plan sooner rather than later, before property prices go up.
Furthermore, Gage said it’s already expensive for builders to mitigate the environmental impact of construction projects, with a single home in the city of Gilroy requiring $70,000 worth of permit fees, for example.
The current proposed rate for a SCVHCP permit varies depending on which of three categories of land will be considered for development. Under the current proposal, owners who want to build on “natural lands” in the foothills will pay $19,700 per acre; builders on “vacant land,” including existing pastures and agricultural land on the valley floor, will have to pay $13,800 per acre for mitigation permits; and those who plan to build on smaller sites in more urban areas will have to pay about $5,000 per acre for habitat permits.
Most of the property in Morgan Hill will be considered as vacant land under the current draft of the plan, according to Schreiber. Fee revenues will be used for property purchases in the 58,000-acre “reserve program” over the next 50 years.
“It seems like a lot of money, when you spend that much over 50 years,” Gage said. “But if we don’t do it now … It’s cheaper to buy farmland and hillside property than developable land. (Species protection) is happening now, but anybody who has had to go through the federal fish and game (service), they’ve paid a heavy price for that, and it takes a long time.”
Developers who could be contacted by press time did not know enough about the SCVHCP to comment on its details or possible impact to the construction or real estate industry. Gary Walton, who has developed a number of projects in Gilroy and Morgan Hill, said he knows the habitat plan is supposed to streamline the permitting process, but it may have the opposite effect as well as raise costs for builders, and eventually for consumers.
“Anything that has habitat issues (requiring permits), it’s just raising the cost of building, which is not good for the community or the state,” Walton said, though he added that he is not completely familiar with the local habitat plan.
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Endangered and threatened species protected under the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan:
Animals
– Bay checkerspot butterfly
– California tiger salamander
– California red-legged frog
– Foothill yellow-legged frog
– Western pond turtle
– Golden eagle
– Western burrowing owl
– Least Bell’s vireo
– Tricolored blackbird
– Pacific Townsend’s big-eared bat
– San Joaquin kit fox
Plants
– Tiburon Indian paintbrush
– Coyote ceanothus
– Mount Hamilton thistle
– San Francisco collinsia
– Santa Clara Valley dudleya
– Fragrant fritillary
– Loma Prieta hoita
– Smooth lessingia
– Metcalf Canyon jewelflower
– Most beautiful jewelflower
