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Home My WebLink AboutCT 98-17; Hadley Property; Tentative Map (CT) (59)& ASSOCIATES, INC. Engineering, Planning, Corporate Office: Environmental Sciences and Professional Teams for Complex Projects 760.942.5147 Management Services Encinitas, California 92024 Fax 760.632.0164 17 December 1998 1724-01 Spectrum Communities, LLC % David Salene 15375 Barranca Parkway, Suite B-211 Irvine, CA 92618 Re: Biological Impacts of the Proposed Hadley Property Development Dear Mr. Salene: The Biological Survey of the Hadley Property (September 21, 1998) prepared by Dudek & Associates, addressed the habitat types present, and identified constraints to development of the property. A small amount of impacts will occur as part of the selective clearing of native habitat for purpose of fire suppression in Zone 3. This letter describes and quantifies those impacts and provides an impact analysis. The Hadley property is an approximately 14.7 acre parcel situated within Zone 20 of the City of Carlsbad in the northwestern portion of San Diego County. The property is located within the City of Carlsbad, east of Black Rail Court, north of the Aviara Parkway, south of the proposed La Costa Boulevard (extension of Camino de las Ondas), and west of El Camino Real. The September 21, 1998 letter regarding the biological resources onsite identified the chaparral community onsite as southern mixed chaparral. Although our botanist and the City of Carlsbad Draft HMP concurred with this identification, upon my most recent visit, I feel the vegetation community should be identified as southern maritime chaparral. Currently the resource agencies and jurisdictions are working on providing solid definitions of southern mixed and southern maritime chaparral so that these communities are correctly identified in the field by numerous biologists in San Diego County. The habitat onsite contains 4 of the necessary indicators to conclude the habitat is southern maritime chaparral. These indicators are: wart-stemmed ceanothus, Nuttall's scrub oak, sandstone soils and location within the fog belt. The agencies currently feel that having 4 of the long list of possible indicators of maritime chaparral results in the conclusion that the habitat is maritime chaparral. There are three vegetation communities present on the property: disturbed habitat or agriculture, coast live oak riparian forest, and southern maritime chaparral. These vegetation communities are described below and shown on the attached exhibit. Disturbed or Agricultural Habitat (10.5 acres) Disturbed or agricultural habitat is defined as areas where the native vegetation has been removed by mechanical means. The area may be unvegetated or vegetated with weedy non-native annual dicots, such as telegraphweed (Heterotheca grandiflora), Russian- thistle (Salsola tragus), and tocalote (Centaurea melitensis). This category includes open fields, areas devoid of vegetation and other areas supporting weeds. Most of the disturbed/agriculture habitat onsite consists of the large area currently disced for agriculture production. A total of approximately 10.5 acres of disturbed or agriculture habitat is located onsite. Southern Coast Live Oak Riparian Forest (0.2 acre) Southern coast live oak riparian forest is an open to locally dense evergreen sclerophyllous riparian woodland dominated by coast live oak (Quercus agrifolid). According to Holland (1986) it is richer in herbs and poorer in understory shrubs than other riparian communities. It typically occurs in bottomlands and outer floodplains along larger streams, on fine grained, rich alluvium. Riparian habitats such as southern coast live oak riparian forest represent high quality wildlife habitat, providing structural diversity. They are important sites of primary productivity and play a vital role in nutrient recycling and maintenance of water quality. Many species of animals that are resident in adjacent scrub habitat forage in riparian areas during the drier times of the year. Onsite this community is represented by a band of coast live oak dominated habitat, a total of 0.2 acre with scattered individuals of southern mixed chaparral species. Southern Maritime Chaparral (4.0 acres) Southern maritime chaparral is similar to southern mixed chaparral but is restricted to coastal localities within the fog belt and typically develops on sandstone soils. This community is characterized by several shrubs of limited distribution, including Del Mar manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa var. crassifolid), wart-stemmed ceanothus (Ceanothus verrucosus), coast spicebrush (Cneoridium dumosum), and Nuttall's scrub oak (Quercus dumosd). Other shrubs encountered frequently in this community are chamise, lemonadeberry, laurel sumac, toyon and summer-holly. There is some question regarding the definition of this community and considerable disagreement exists among those who map plant communities. Currently the resource agencies and jurisdictions are working on providing solid definitions of southern mixed and southern maritime chaparral. A relatively large area onsite is composed of southern maritime chaparral. It is located in the eastern portion of the property and extends into the drainage that runs offsite to the northeast. A total of approximately 4.0 acres of southern maritime chaparral is present onsite. Sensitive Plant Species Two plant species, Nuttall's scrub (Quercus dumosd) and wart-stemmed ceanothus (Ceanothus verrucosus) were observed onsite. Both species were observed within the southern maritime chaparral area in the eastern and northern portions of the property. These species are described below and their distribution is shown on the attached exhibit. Ceanothus verrucosus - wart-stemmed ceanothus USFWS: former Category 2 candidate CDFG: None CNPS: List 2,1-2-1 Wart-stemmed ceanothus is an erect, stiff-branched, rounded, evergreen shrub, 1.0-3.0 m tall, that occurs on dry hills and mesas in coastal and mixed chaparral habitats below 300 m in western San Diego County and adjacent Baja California, Mexico. It is a spring- blooming species, flowering from January to April (Munz 1974). Beauchamp (1986) reports this species from Agua Hedionda, Encinitas, Leucadia, Torrey Pines State Reserve, Kearny Mesa, Lake Hodges and Point Loma. Although moderately common chaparral along the coast, this species is the dominant shrub in some chaparral in the Lake Hodges/Mount Israel area. In Baja California, wart-stemmed ceanothus ranges from the Pacific coast to the foothills of the Sierra Juarez and Sierra San Pedro Martir (Wiggins 1980). A number of individuals of wart-stemmed ceanothus are present onsite. They are scattered throughout the southern maritime chaparral habitat and are in the eastern sloped portion of the property. Quercus dumosa - Nuttall's scrub oak USFWS: former Category 2 candidate CDFG: None CNPS: List IB, 2-3-2 In the Jepson Manual (Hickman 1993), the common, widespread species formerly known as scrub oak (Quercus dumosa) was treated as two closely related species — Nuttall's scrub oak (Quercus dumosa) and "interior" scrub oak (Quercus berberidifolid). Although interior scrub oak is widely distributed throughout southern California in chaparral habitats, Nuttall's scrub oak is restricted ti the narrow coastal strip, and hence, has been severly affected by development. Nuttall's scrub oak was one of eight native plants included in a "southern maritime chaparral listing package" circulated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1994. One individual of Nuttall's scrub oak was observed on the east facing slope near the eaestern property boundary of the site. It is likely that more individuals are present onsite. They would be located within the open space area of the proposed project, thus it was not deemed important that every individual be accounted for. Impact Analysis Implementation of the proposed project would result in the direct loss of 0.32 acres of southern maritime chaparral and no losses to sensitive plant species. The table below illustrates the impacts to the existing plant communities onsite. The impact to the southern maritime chaparral vegetation community will require mitigation. TABEBJl Impacts to Exisiting Plant Communites Plant Community Southern Maritime Chaparral Coast Live Oak Riparian horest Disturbed or Agriculture Habitat 1 otals Existing Acreage 4 0.2 10.5 14.7 Direct Impacts* UJ2 0 9.8 1U.12 Open Space 3.68 0.2 0.7 4.58 Includes the entire limits offyadingfor the project and all brush managnent zones Mitigation Measures The Hadley project includes in the project design the granting of an open space easement over 92 percent (3.68 acres) of the southern maritime chaparral on the property. The onsite impact to southern maritime chaparral is 0.32 acres. The onsite preservation is greater than the 2:1 mitigation ratio that is typically required by the resource agencies for the impact of southern maritime chaparral. With the preservation of 3.68 acres onsite, the impact to southern maritime chaparral is full y mitigated. The open space easement also includes the preservation of 100 percent of the wart-stemmed ceanothus and Nuttall's scrub oak. Please feel free to contact me at (760) 942-5147 with questions or if you require additional information. Very truly yours, DUDEK & ASSOCIATES, INC. Anita M. Hayworth, Ph Biologist V Jack Henthorn & Associates Wes Witt, Hadley Trust