Single-Family Residential Projects, Cotati Area
Vollmar Natural Lands Consulting / Private Clients
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Redtail Consulting was brought in on a sole-source basis to assist in developing permitting and CEQA approaches for two semi-rural single-family homes proposed near Cotati. The projects were unrelated but had shared challenges—both were within designated critical habitat for California tiger salamander and were dominated by uplands where the species was presumed to be present. Both projects therefore required federal and state take permitting. Both projects also involved minor impacts on jurisdictional waters.
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The incidental take permit process can be prohibitively costly and time-consuming for individual homeowners, and challenges for these two projects were compounded by the need for CEQA review: with no local discretionary “handle” on either project, one of the resource agencies would need to act as CEQA lead. Redtail’s role was to engage resource agency staff and develop a consensus approach to meet regulatory requirements and appropriately protect resources while streamlining reviews and reducing costs as much as possible for the homeowners. This entailed extensive dialogue with staff at DFW, USFWS, USACE, and two RWQCBs (Regions 1 and 2), as well as coordination among the agencies and between agency staff and the consultant team. We were able to negotiate the RWQCBs agreeing to treat the projects as exempt in issuing water quality certifications. Permit applications were submitted with the anticipation that the projects will be appended to the USFWS Programmatic Biological Opinion for the Santa Rosa Plain, enabling DFW to issue a Consistency Determination, which—unlike issuance of an incidental take permit—does not require CEQA review. This represented a significant cost savings for the homeowners as well as a more straightforward permit approach for two very small projects.
Photo courtesy of Vollmar Natural Lands Consulting