Politics & Government

County Habitat Conservation Plan Moves Forward

In a perfect world the multi-agency 50-year plan would satisfy both environmentalists and real estate developers.

Moving forward in the process is the Santa Clara County Habitat Conservation Plan, which could influence the region’s environment and development for the next 50 years if implemented.

"If you've done it right, it's good for business and good for the environment," said Debbie Cauble, Santa Clara County's lead representative of the Valley Habitat Plan.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted on Sept. 27 to continue its development of a new Habitat Conservation Plan that would affect roughly 520,000 acres—about 62 percent of county land area—throughout the county. Morgan Hill and Gilroy followed suit at their respective council meetings the first week of October.

Find out what's happening in Gilroywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Though the land effected by the plan is concentrated in the southern portion of the county—mostly in the cities of San Jose, Morgan Hill and Gilroy—the developers who buy and build on those acres are located throughout the region and beyond.

And it's those developers who are pitted against the environmental interests—and the costs involved—in the controversial plan.

Find out what's happening in Gilroywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"This thing has long reaching consequences. There is intense pressure on other areas to do the same thing," said Dennis Martin, managing director of the Silicon Valley chapter of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.

The plan involves six local agencies—Santa Clara County, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, Santa Clara Valley Water District, and the cities of San Jose, Gilroy and Morgan Hill--plus two wildlife agencies—California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—and is intended to simplify the process through which development proposals move.

"It is designed to solve several problems simultaneously; reduce government bureaucracy and provide certainty for public and private development while also providing the means to create and protect open space and habitat land," said Mike Wasserman, Santa Clara County Supervisor.

Wasserman voted to move the plan forward along with supervisors Liz Kniss and Ken Yeager.

The plan would protect 19 species of plants, insects and animals such as the California tiger salamander, California red-legged frog, western burrowing owl and Bay checkerspot butterfly.

Contiguous wildlife habitat corridors would evolve with the plan and it saves money for county departments; two reasons Supervisor Liz Kniss voted to move the plan forward, she says.

"It creates wildlife corridors and better preserved species than if we just kind of dot different protected areas in a whole variety of sections of the county," she said.

"Also I think it's very good four our county. That's going to save our parks department roughly $26 million, and the roads department roughly almost $7 million in mitigations for their projects. That plan, the implementation agency is going to pay the parks department $36 million to manage the land that parks puts into the reserve system," Kniss said.

"So without that plan the parks would still acquire the land, but then have to pay it off with taxpayer dollars."

Cauble said they are trying to bring the Army Corps of Engineers into the process and plan as well, because that agency ultimately has a stake in the development of the land, too. By bringing all the agencies together and putting forth a plan that developers can look at in one package it can save them time and money in the development process. That's something that Martin said is encouraging to the commercial real estate group.

"If more agencies will join into that approval process then I think it could become a vehicle in certain areas to smooth development," Martin said. "At this point I think some more of that collaboration is needed."

The City of San Jose has on its Oct. 18 1:30 p.m. session agenda to discuss the Habitat Conservation Plan, the Liaison Group meeting of the six local agencies will meet on Oct. 20 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Santa Clara Valley Water District office at 5700 Almaden Expressway in San Jose.

Visit the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Plan website for more details on the plan and process, and to see a map of the areas involved.


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