Preserve, Land Deal Work to Each Other's Benefit
By Josh Cohen News Staff Writer
RPV - For years, city officials in Rancho Palos Verdes have tried to come up with a Natural Communities Conservation Planning program that would fit the needs of environmentalists and developers alike. Fueled by last year's offer to purchase more than 700 acres of open space land in Portuguese Bend, officials may have devised a plan that garners the approval of government agencies holding the purse strings to funds needed to form the largest wildlife preserve on the Hill.
NCCP organizers in the city, including Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy Director Keith Lenard and Planning Director Joel Rojas, are putting the finishing touches on a map that, if accepted, would preserve approximately 95 percent of the city's remaining open land. If all goes well, RPV will have set aside more than 1,000 acres of land for Peninsula habitat, all of which will be managed by the conservancy.
"We're pretty close to finalizing the NCCP," said Rojas Tuesday. "It's pretty impressive in terms of the amount of coverage, encompassing all the open space the city has been trying to purchase. There is much more preserve than any other design."
Rojas hopes to make the new NCCP map and design public within a few weeks.
"What we're hoping to do is, after we meet at the end of the month with the [state Department of Fish and Game], we can report to the City Council the feedback we got and give a report on the status of the NCCP on June 4," he said.
The city and conservancy have taken more active roles in the latest NCCP process, which is crucial to the land acquisition. An NCCP is an agreement entered into by cities and counties, in which open space land is delineated for either preservation
or development.
In May 2001, the city offered $30 million to Portuguese Bend property owners Jim York and Barry Hon. Local representatives hope approximately $20 million will come from state funding agencies, but those agencies, such as the Wildlife Conservation Board, have said they will not guarantee any money until Fish and Game gives an OK to a preserve design. Fish and Game representatives say the city's design must be part of an NCCP process.
"Before they can give it a thumbs up or thumbs down, they need to see the NCCP," said Lenard. "When we announced the purchase agreement for the Portuguese Bend property and went to Fish and Game, they said they needed an NCCP. What the conservancy did was we took the purchase agreement and reverse-engineered a design around it. What came out of that was a draft design [with preservation] that exceeds even the previous one that was preferred by environmental groups, protecting about 95 percent of the remaining open space in the city."
NCCP Hopes
City representatives say that if everything falls into place, Fish and Game will approve the NCCP design and give the OK to funding agencies to release or set aside money for the land acquisition. But to work, any NCCP plan has to assume the land deal will go through.
"It seems a little like a vicious circle, but our solution is to prepare the NCCP based on the assumption that the land will be acquired and show that design to the resource agencies," said Rojas. "We feel that should get their stamp of approval, based on what they've told us. If we can get their support, that will focus all the attention on getting the acquisition to happen."
Lenard said he has pursued a number of sources to fund the purchase. One source is Proposition 40, which was passed by California voters in March and will allocate large amounts of its total $2.6 billion to various agencies, including the Wildlife Conservation Board. Officials assume the WCB will get approximately $500 million to give to various cities, counties and land trusts for open-space acquisitions and other environmental projects.
According to Lenard, while the WCB will continuously appropriate Prop. 40 money with the approval of state wildlife agencies, approximately $1 billion in funds will be subject to the whims of the Legislature.
Lenard also recently met with Melanie Denninger, the South Coast manager for the State Coastal Conservancy. Lenard hopes the Coastal Conservancy board will agree to help contribute to the cost of the land acquisition, subject to appropriations by the state Legislature and Gov. Gray Davis.
"I feel the property is worthwhile, though there are some outstanding regulatory issues," said Denninger. "It appears that the natural resources ... and also the
public recreational and
educational opportunities are present to make the resource appropriate for the Coastal Conservancy to give serious attention to."
However, Denninger said, Coastal Conservancy board members have yet to discuss the Portuguese Bend land deal, and most certainly will wait for approval from state and federal resource agencies before taking any action.
"It is very premature to represent any specific interest on the part of the state Coastal Conservancy, although we expect to look carefully at the potential the [acquisition] has in bringing natural resources into the public domain," she said. "We really have no idea what the budget will yield."
Most Preserved
So far, the landowners seem willing to part with their property, almost all of which lies on the Portuguese Bend Landslide and is excluded from development under a building moratorium.
York, however, has some plans for a small portion of his property called Lower Filiorum. He plans a housing tract there, and recently turned in what Rojas called "the first complete landslide moratorium exclusion application" in the city's short history.
"In terms of geological work, we think we have enough data to proceed with the process," said Rojas.
The city and York, however, are still disputing whether a moratorium exclusion falls under the California Environmental Quality Act and requires further environmental reports.
Lower Filiorum makes up a majority of land that would be designated for development under an NCCP. Remaining open space, including a majority of Upper Point Vicente Park near City Hall, city-owned canyons, parks and coastal bluffs, is slated for preservation.
"It's really important to realize the NCCP was effectively a dead patient and we put it back on life support with the reverse-engineered plan," said Lenard. "The only thing that is driving the NCCP is the potential for a functional real estate transaction. That's why the money is so important. If the state isn't going to support the acquisition, there will be no NCCP."