North Bay Business Journal

Most people would agree that if a school, hospital or road project has been subjected to extensive environmental review and met all federal, state and local environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act, the project should go forward without being sued for purported environmental reasons. Unfortunately, [...]

SANTA ROSA — It surprised backers of the planned runway expansion at Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport when federal wildlife regulators earlier this year said the presence of an endangered flower in the project area might be assumed though not found specifically there in surveys, potentially needing more conservation measures estimated to boost the job cost by at least $10 million and delay it a year.

SANTA ROSA — A project to lengthen runways to new federal standards at Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport will be delayed by one year, after federal regulators required further environmental study.

The added endangered-species impact mitigation will add about $10 million to the project cost. The $53 million expansion project now needs $23 million in environmental measures.

SANTA ROSA — Thanks to the “March miracle” rainfall, Russian River water supply conditions on April 1 will change from “critical” to “normal” under the Sonoma County Water Agency’s water rights permits and State Water Resource Control Board Decision 1610.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service today released a revised proposal for the amount of central Sonoma County deemed critical habitat for the protected California tiger salamander, reducing the 74,223-acres area proposed in 2005 and 2009 by 31 percent.

SONOMA COUNTY – The Public Policy Facilitating Committee will hold its annual meeting today to review progress on the Russian River Biological Opinion, a 15-year plan to help endangered and threatened fish while maintaining the region’s primary water supply.

SONOMA COUNTY — A proposed rock quarry that proponents say could fill a vital need for gravel for local projects has faced numerous environmental hurdles, chief among them the environmental impact review process after the land off Roblar Road was found to be housing an endangered species.

Mi Pueblo Foods opened its San Rafael store, renovated from a 36,000-square-foot shuttered Circuit City store, on Wednesday. … Rancho Mendoza Super Mercado is reworking 14,000 square feet of former high-technology development and furniture store space at 1201 Piner Road in northwest Santa Rosa to create a second location. … The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service last week expanded the critical habitat for the threatened California red-legged frog into six counties not covered by the 2006 ruling on habitat, including 21,814 acres along Mill Creek on the Mendocino Coast and two locations in Sonoma County, encompassing 1,564 acres in and around Annadel State Park east of Santa Rosa and 4,932 acres on Sonoma Mountain. … Ken Lafranchi of Santa Rosa-based Lafranchi Architecture and Development said the bulk of interest for the forthcoming remodel of the 2,400-square-foot Geyserville Post Office is coming from a group of boutique vintners interested in setting up a collective tasting room. … The Dutra Group’s proposal for an asphalt plant and aggregate distribution facility along the Petaluma River was postponed from March 16 to the May 11 Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meeting.

CALIFORNIA — The California Fish and Game Commission voted 3-2 to designate the California tiger salamander as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act.

SANTA ROSA – Following a settlement in May with the Airzona-based Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is re-proposing a huge swath of 74,223 acres of the Santa Rosa Plain as critical habitat for the California tiger salamander, opening a 60-day public comment period.

NORTH BAY – Landscapers and commercial property owners are making tough choices on how to maintain curb appeal while complying with new local rules for cutting irrigation by up to half this summer to avoid a state ban next year on watering.

SONOMA COUNTY — The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity reached a settlement that will reopen consideration of 74,223 acres of central Sonoma County as “critical habitat” for the California tiger salamander, potentially turning back the clock on a several-year local effort to avoid such a result.

The Northern California wine industry has become a key laboratory for significant nationwide trends in endangered-species regulation. The prominent national and California species issues that have developed recently — the continuing decline of many endangered species, the incremental impacts of global climate change and the evolving endangered species regulatory framework — are beginning to have dramatic effects on wine growers and the wine industry in general.

SANTA ROSA — A novel private-public effort to restore California tiger salamander and other protected species in a large area of central Sonoma County and allow for some construction may be coming out of hibernation less than a month after the seven-year effort was nearly dead for lack of public funds and uncertainty about the regulatory outcome.

The apparent collapse last week of a seven-year effort driven by business and public leaders to protect the endangered tiger salamander without bringing the economy to a halt shows that if obstructionists and bureaucrats can stall long enough, they somehow win.