Habitat conservation plan released for public comment

Public Record, The, Nov 16, 2004 by Kleinschmidt, Janice

Finally, finally, finally, finally," said Palm Desert Council Member Buford Crites, "this thing is out for the public to look at. We now have a track that this will go down and we are now finally ready to do problem-solving."

Crites, who chairs the Coachella Valley Association of Government's Energy and Environmental Resources Committee, was talking about the 10-years-in-the-making Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. On Nov. 5, CVAG held a press conference amid towering palms at the Coachella Valley Preserve in Thousand Palms to announce the release of the plan for public review. The plan is about solving problems that come with growth and balancing growth with conservation.

"Now it's time for the public. to say yes, no, how about and what if," Crites said, adding that the plan represents "perhaps the most important single thing that we can do. for the whole valley's future."

The plan's genesis lies in a study prepared by the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy to identify the need for and the scope of a multiple species habitat conservation plan. CVAG's Executive Committee approved development of a memorandum of understanding among Coachella Valley cities;, Riverside County, California Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies/districts to prepare a plan. CVAG contracted the conservancy to draft it in conjunction with a Project Advisory Group composed of representatives of all parties. Public forums were held in 1998, 1999 and 2000, and special meetings were provided for potentially affected landowners to provide input. Biological, topographical, land use and other pertinent data were collected and analyzed by a Scientific Advisory Committee and reviewed by independent science advisors. Review by signatories to the initial memorandum. of understanding were completed this year. What follows now is a 90-day comment period.

"Now we're at a point where [for example] people who use .trails can comment and say, 'We like this system, we don't like this system,"' says CVAG Executive Director John Wohlmuth. I 'expect comments will be very detailed." Each comment, whether made verbally at a public hearing or in writing, requires a written response. "We have allowed about three months after the comment period closes to review and respond to comments," Wohlmuth says.

Coachella Valley cities make up approximately 16 percent of the 1.1 million acres covered by the plan; the rest is unincorporated. Fiftythree percent of the land is conservation land, 28 percent is nonconserved vacant land, 7.5 percent is agricultural, 6 percent is urbanized, 4 percent is covered by the Salton Sea, 1 percent is rural development and 5 percent has wind energy development. Approximately 45 percent of the land covered is privately held.

The plan identifies 21 conservation areas, 27 species (11 of which are currently listed as threatened or endangered and 16 of which are likely to be listed absent a conservation plan) and 27 natural communities. It adds about 160,000 acres to existing conservation lands to establish 725,000 acres of reserve. Development in a conservation area would be required to comply with plan guidelines.

At the crux of the plan are "take permits" issued to plan signatories that allow the "take" of a threatened or endangered species or its habitat in exchange for a habitat conservation plan that provides for the permanent protection of the species and its habitat in the wild.

The plan, as Crites explained at the press conference, would allow developers and cities to "move from project-by-project lawsuits to preferred, comprehensive openspace protections." Instead of undertaking biological surveys and environmental analyses of project impacts, followed by mitigation negotiations. projects outside identified conservation areas would simply pay a mitigation fee. Covered activities include public works projects.

If approved, local permittees would establish a joint powers authority the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission to implement the plan and oversee a joint project review process for proposed development in conservation areas.

Development impact fees, Measure A funds for transportation project mitigation, regional infrastructure mitigation fees, and trust fund revenues would finance land acquisition (expected to take 30 years), as well as monitoring and managing the reserve system. Additionally, the commission would build an endowment fund to monitor and manage the reserve in perpetuity. It is expected to take 75 years (the term of permits) to fully fund the endowment, after which interest on the fund should be enough to cover costs.

The plan does not address what happens to the permits at the end of 75 years. "We need to show over the 75 years that we have purchased the land and built the endowment to manage and monitor the land forever," Wohlmuth says.

Estimated expenditures over the initial 75 years are $278,324,900, including $142,475,600 for land acquisition. Estimated revenues are $459,264,700, including $164,563,800 from interest on investments.