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The SB County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted last week to adopt the resolution recommended by BIA to clarify the intent of the proposed SB County Regional Conservation Investment Strategy (RCIS) – see background email below. Of particular importance was Finding #7 which received opposition from the Endangered Habitats League and other environmental groups (click here for the EHL letter). The significance of Finding #7 in the resolution is referenced below in my email comments to County Staff. During my public comments I provided a copy of a fact sheet regarding the prevalence of CEQA abuse to underscore the importance of adopting the resolution.
BIA Email Comments to County Staff - Regarding Item 7 of the resolution finding:
… the RCIS shall not trigger conservation of vegetation that does not currently require mitigation under CEQA by the lead agency, including, but not limited to, desert scrub, transitional scrub/chaparral/woodland and non-native grasslands that do not support special status, threatened or endangered species. The BOARDS recognizes that 583,527 acres of the 621,818 RCIS conservation acreage recommendation for privately held lands is made up of these three vegetation types according to the January 2022 RCIS draft, Table 3-7 (click here).
Please note:
1.Landowners seeking to establish mitigation credit agreement for the entirely of a property will typically have a mixture of habitat occupied by a threatened species as well as associated common habitats. Having said that, Finding #7 merely affirms that the intent of the RCIS is voluntary and is not meant to trigger mitigation for habitat types including but not limited to (desert scrub, transitional scrub/chaparral/woodland and non-native grasslands) or imply the need to require local projects to exceed current CEQA policy, practice and mitigation requirements.
2.Finding #7 is consistent with the state statute that created this RCIS process -- and the fairly clear limitation on the use of an RCIS until such time as one or more subsequent "mitigation credit agreements" are fashioned and executed to give the RCIS effect. California Fish and Game Code sections 1850 and 1855, read together, basically prohibit the uncritical weaponization of an RCIS using CEQA. If and to the extent that there's any question about that, it's important to emphasize that the RCIS should not be weaponized under CEQA vis-a-vis the habitat types mentioned in Finding No. 7 for two more important reasons, which are:
1. Habitat types like desert scrub, transitional scrub/chaparral/woodland and non-native grasslands are not themselves species which require mitigation under CEQA. These habitats feature vast amounts of acreage without any species that receive protection; and RCIS should not imply or suggest the need to require additional mitigation.
2. The quantity of private acres that might be affected by any attempt to weaponize these habitat types (desert scrub, transitional scrub/chaparral/woodland and non-native grasslands) are gigantic - approximately 542,000 acres in the Desert Region and over 622,000 countywide. Unfortunately, the RCIS process was undertaken without any input from the affected High Desert cities of Adelanto, Apple Valley, Hesperia and Victorville, and Item 7 merely affirms the voluntary nature of RCIS and clarifies there is no intent to trigger additional conservation/mitigation beyond what is currently required under CEQA by the lead agency.
Next Steps
As noted in the attached Table 3-7, the RCIS includes over 620,000 acres of privately held land with coinciding numeric conservation goals for a variety of “habitat groups” including some that do not currently require mitigation under CEQA (desert scrub, transitional scrub/chaparral/woodland and non-native grasslands). The resolution is a step toward clarifying the intent of RCIS is not to trigger additional mitigation beyond what is required under CEQA. The clarification in the resolution was needed to prevent the weaponization of RCIS and avoid inviting legal challenges from environmental groups.
Moving forward, the SB County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) is currently preparing a final draft in response to a 60-day public comment period which concluded on August 4 (see BIA public comments). We continue our discussions with SBCTA, and the cities of Adelanto, Apple Valley, Hesperia and Victorville to ensure the appropriate edits are made to the document including the removal of the numeric conservation goals coinciding with each Habitat Group. The final draft RCIS will be submitted to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) by Oct 31. We will keep you posted on the status and please contact me if you have any questions. For more information regarding the RCIS please click the following links and see the email below.
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