By Clark Mason, The Press Democrat
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Residents next to a greenbelt between
Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park are accustomed to the open space in their back yards
as a kind of bird preserve.
But these days, the land that has supported
hawks, herons and other birds is stripped bare. It's the work of heavy-equipment
operators who scraped the earth prematurely, without proper environmental
review, according to Sonoma County officials.
"It looks like a
wasteland," said Chris Carter, a resident of Rohnert Park's "F" section whose
back deck overlooks the 59 acres of denuded land.
"Now it's stripped down
to below the topsoil. It's just mud and adobe," he said.
"It's completely
barren," said his neighbor Connie Heinse. "The saddest thing is we used to have
all kinds of beautiful songbirds, ducks and pheasants -- a whole flock. Now we
have pigeons, blackbirds and crows."
Ironically, the old barley- and
hayfield was bulldozed ostensibly for environmental reasons -- to create new
wetlands.
The land is being turned into a potentially lucrative wetlands
mitigation "bank." Shares in such mitigation banks are sold to developers, who
are then allowed to proceed with projects that destroy wetlands
elsewhere.
But the contractor involved in the project admitted this week
that his company "jumped the gun" because the county had not issued a permit to
allow work to begin.
Twelve days ago, the Sonoma County planning
department halted work at the three wetlands-creation sites and the code
enforcement division launched an investigation after learning the applicant, TDG
Consulting Civil Engineers, failed to obtain an environmental review to ensure
no rare plants or animals were harmed.
"We could have avoided it if our
guys had made sure the permit was in our file," said Bill Olmo, general manager
for Fedco, the company that did the grading at the Santa Rosa Avenue site. He
said there was urgency to complete the project in time for the upcoming rainy
season.
After stopping work on the three sites, the county assessed an
extra $4,185 in penalties and fees. That comes on top of the scheduled $4,300 in
fees for a zoning permit and environmental review the applicant must also
pay.
According to Dave Hardy, a supervising county planner, Charles
Traboulsi of TDG Consulting applied for grading permits for the three sites in
April, but was told he would need a more detailed zoning permit and
environmental review.
But officials said they learned in late June that
work had begun on the wetlands sites without any required environmental
assessment submitted to the county.
Traboulsi did not return calls placed
by The Press Democrat to his office and cell phone.
But since the work
was red flagged, Fedco General Manager Olmo said he'd located a biological and
archaeological assessment that was done by consultants, but apparently never got
to county planners.
Those reports have now been submitted to the county.
Hardy said it will take at least several more weeks before the county reviews
and acts on the application, probably with input from the state Department of
Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency.
In the meantime,
neighbor Carter wonders how long there will be a "barren desert in our back
yard."
Olmo said the birds will come back once the rainy season arrives
and grass grows. "That's why it's important to get the permit and ponds the way
they are supposed to be, so the grass and wildlife will come back," he
said.
Eventually, said Hardy, "it will look like a field with some ponds.
In the end, there will be more bird and animal life and a few cows and horses to
keep it grazed."
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