Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan

Habitat Plan out of woods?

Habitat plan to add fees, hasten permitting

December 20, 2010
By Michael Moore
Gilroy Dispatch
 
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."

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Draft habitat plan accepting public comment

December 19, 2010
By Michael Moore
Morgan Hill Times
Citizens have 120 days to comment on the long-awaited Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan and the Natural Community Conservation Plan, a countywide plan to protect endangered species from future development.

Public comment on the 2,000-page draft plan starts today, and will continue until April 18, 2011.

The SCVHCP imagines a contiguous 500,000-acre swath, mostly in South County, to preserve and protect 21 endangered and threatened species. Participating in the plan are the cities of Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Jose, Santa Clara County, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the Valley Transportation Authority.

When completed, the plan will use building permits to allow developers and home builders to build on land where the covered species live if they implement mitigation efforts. Species covered under the plan include the Bay checkerspot butterfly, California red-legged frog, California tiger salamander.
 
 

Habitat Plan Community Meeting

June 23, 2009
By Gilroy Dispatch Staff
 
Citizens can learn more about the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Plan at a community meeting in Morgan Hill tonight.
Staff from more than 10 participating agencies will present the plan's second draft and be available to answer questions from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The meeting will take place in the El Toro Room of the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center at 17000 Monterey Road.
The Santa Clara Valley Habitat Plan is a long-range conservation strategy to enhance ecological diversity and habitat function in about two-thirds of South County. A goal of the plan is to work with stakeholders and the general public to determine how to achieve that plan, while accommodating development and streamlining the environmental permitting process.
The plan includes the protection of native wildlife, including vegetation species found only in Santa Clara County.
The final plan will be developed over the next year. A draft and associated environmental documents are expected to be completed later this year.
Tonight's meeting will give the public an opportunity to learn about the Habitat Plan and the Draft Conservation Strategy, which covers future land acquisition plans. Stakeholders will also be available to discuss the plan's costs and funding options, and how it will be implemented.
Participating in the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Plan are Santa Clara County, the cities of Morgan Hill, Gilroy, and San Jose, the Valley Transportation authority, Valley Water District, the California Dept. of Fish and Game, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and California State Parks.

New habitat plans said to improve local land control

March 10, 2008
By Mark Noack
Morgan Hill Times

Relatively new legal tools for protecting endangered species and habitats are being prepared for approval by the Morgan Hill City Council. According to Ann Draper, assistant operating officer at the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the proposed Habitat and Natural Community conservation plans will give Morgan Hill better control to mitigate and restore natural habitats while also streamlining environmental regulations.

Early in the decade, entering into the habitat plans was a requirement for getting federal and state approval for Highway 101 improvement projects for various local government bodies, including Santa Clara County, San Jose, VTA, the Santa Clara Water District - and later in 2005 - Morgan Hill and Gilroy. "This will be a significant preservation of habitat and open space for our community," Draper said. "It's a habitat legacy for our community."

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Big Effort to Save a Little Butterfly

Once-common bay checkerspot given boost from devoted team of biologists, nature lovers

February 16, 2007
By Jane Kay
San Francisco Chronicle

For the past few springs, people have flocked to the popular Edgewood Park and Natural Preserve in the hills above Redwood City to admire the wildflowers. But they haven't seen a single bay checkerspot butterfly, once a vibrant presence in the rolling serpentine-rock grasslands. On Thursday, a small band of biologists and park lovers hiked into the preserve, carrying a precious cargo that they hope will return the red-and-black butterfly to its home. They gently lifted hundreds of plump, inch-long black, bristly caterpillars from a cooler and placed them on the ground among their favorite food, the plantain, a native plant. By April, they hope, the caterpillars will transform into butterflies and begin to populate part of the 467-acre park.

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The Checkerspot Mystery: An Ecological Whodunit

May 22, 2006
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post

San Jose – For one week a year the vibrantly colored bay checkerspot butterfly is in its element on Coyote Ridge, flitting from one wildflower to the next in search of sustenance.  The hillside used to be covered with these creatures – which warm themselves in the sun, mate and deposit hundreds of eggs to launch the next generation before dying off... [Read Full Article]

Bay Checkerspot Flying High

Threatened butterfly habitat preserved in Santa Clara County
May 7, 2006
By Melissa Flores
The Sunday Pinnacle
 
In a spot hidden from the public in Santa Clara County, wildflowers cover the hills, dotting the terrain with bright orange, purples and yellows - California poppies, Mount Hamilton thistles and tidy tips.

The plants and others in the region make up a nectar concoction that is irresistible to the Bay checkerspot butterfly, an insect listed as threatened by the federal government... [Read Full Article]

Conservation in the Works

Oct. 19, 2005
By Matt King
Gilroy Dispatch


GILROY — The tiger salamander is making its last stand in South County. Thursday, Gilroy and Morgan Hill will officially join a massive planning effort that could end the constant development battles that infuriate homebuilders and environmentalists alike. When the effort is complete, development projects should no longer be held up for years over concern for the salamander, the California red-legged frog or other endangered species, and acres of critical... [Read Full Article]

Conservation Plan In Santa Clara County

Agencies agree to species strategy
Oct. 21, 2005
By David L. Beck
Mercury News

San Jose, Santa Clara County and four other cities and agencies have agreed to create a conservation strategy for more than half of the county.  When put in place four years from now, the plan will spell out how damage to threatened and endangered species and their habitat can be mitigated. That could lead to a simpler permit process for both... [Read Full Article]

Council to vote to rejoin Habitat Plan

Local Leaders Pledging Partnership

October 18, 2006
Media Advisory
 
An agreement has been reached among six local agencies to develop a plan for protecting native wildlife and vegetation in most of Santa Clara County’s remaining undeveloped areas, while still allowing appropriate development to occur.  On Oct. 20, a public signing ceremony at a site along the Guadalupe River in downtown San Jose will bring together officials from local, state and federal agencies to start the three-year process of developing a comprehensive conservation strategy… [Read Full Article]
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