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Subdivisions in habitat of 2 species get feds' scrutiny By Colin McDonald Updated 02:37 a.m., Wednesday, March 28, 2012 In Northwest Bexar County, where the limestone of the Edwards Aquifer meets the Texas Hill Country, Monte Cristo Developers has started work on two subdivisions of high-end houses scattered across nearly 200 acres of rolling virgin land, three miles from Camp Bullis. The developments, which encompass habitat that protects the aquifer and is critical to two endangered species, including the golden-cheeked warbler, are the kind that neither San Antonio nor the U.S. Army wants. But the city lacks the regulatory power to stop them, even though construction could hurt aquifer recharge features and drive more warblers onto Camp Bullis, threatening its viability as a war-simulation medical training site for Fort Sam Houston. So the city and the Army are now looking to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to enforce the Endangered Species Act on private land. If it finds a violation, the USFWS could make the developer stop building houses or mitigate for the loss of habitat. The USFWS said it has started to review one of the developments, Bloomfield Hills, where roads and three houses have been built, for a possible violation. Construction hasn't started on the other tract, Bloomfield Heights. Gary Mowad, state administrator for the USFWS, warns that developers proceed at their own peril if they destroy habitat without prior review by the agency. In case federal authorities don't act, city attorney Michael Bernard said he is looking into whether the city has the option to sue the developer. For the Army, which has had to restrict training on parts of the 26,000-acre Camp Bullis to protect warblers there, any move to force a developer to comply with the Endangered Species Act and preserve habitat would be welcome. “This is the culmination of what we have been trying to get for four years,” said Jim Cannizzo, environmental lawyer for Camp Bullis and Fort Sam Houston. “They have the developer in the cross hairs and now it is time for (the USFWS) and the U.S. attorney to force the developer to do mitigation like he should be doing.” Protecting the aquifer The Monte Cristo land, near Babcock Road and Cielo Vista Drive west of Friedrich Park, is riddled with fault lines, cracks and caves that connect to the Edwards and Trinity aquifers. Recharge features like those are so important for the protection of San Antonio's drinking water that the city has spent $135 million of a voter-approved sales tax since 2000 to preserve land over the Edwards. One of its first purchases, for $3.7 million, was the 326-acre Woodland Hills property, which includes Breathless Cave, directly downhill from and adjacent to the Monte Cristo developments. As is often the case in northern Bexar County, both subdivisions have endangered golden-cheeked warblers, according to surveys paid for by the developer and the city. Nearly a quarter of one, Bloomfield Heights, also is considered critical habitat for the Madla Cave meshweaver. The small spider is one of the nine endangered Bexar County karst invertebrates that live in only a few caves scattered across Bexar and western Medina counties, including Breathless Cave, according to the USFWS. Because warblers tend to nest and forage along creeks on steep-sided slopes, as they do on the Monte Cristo land, preservation of their habitat also protects water running into the recharge features of the Edwards, said John Hoyt, assistant general manager of the Edwards Aquifer Authority. Protection of the endangered karst invertebrates, such as the meshweaver, serves a similar role because their existence is an indicator of water quality, he said. “They certainly go hand in hand,” he said about protecting San Antonio's main water source and endangered species. City approvals Although development that could harm endangered species and their habitat is at odds with San Antonio's North Sector Plan, the city approved both subdivisions because they complied with development rules, according to Rod Sanchez, director of the Planning and Development Services Department. Bloomfield Hills was platted in 2009 for more than 80 lots on about 90 acres. The Heights plan, approved in February, shows 122 lots on 102 acres. By state law the city can't take into account possible violations of the Endangered Species Act when it reviews a development. But under a 2009 ordinance approved by the City Council, developers have to acknowledge, by signing an affidavit, that in northern Bexar County they are likely to encounter areas of critical habitat for warblers and karst invertebrates. The USFWS is alerted about approved subdivisions under that provision. The Monte Cristo developments illustrate the effect of the 2009 rule. Since Bloomfield Hills was approved before the change, the developer didn't have to file the affidavit disclosing if or when an endangered species survey was done. The USFWS said it only recently learned the Hills had been platted. For Bloomfield Heights, which came after the rule and where ground has yet to be broken, the developer did sign an affidavit. It also hired Pape-Dawson Engineers last year to do a survey. It showed warblers on the Heights land and habitat critical to the meshweaver, according to documents on file with the USFWS. That same survey showed that in the Hills, where the three houses already built are valued at more than $400,000 each, construction took place in occupied golden-cheeked warbler habitat, according to the documents at USFWS. A fourth home is almost finished. The Hills has more warblers than the Heights, according to the survey. For development to destroy 1 acre of occupied warbler habitat and comply with the Endangered Species Act, the USFWS usually requires 2 or 3 acres of equal or better habitat be protected elsewhere. For the meshweaver, mitigation is more difficult because it lives in only a few caves. For example, the developer of La Cantera shopping center had to pay to preserve eight caves in Bexar County to mitigate for two caves that housed the meshweaver and another species and were damaged by the addition of parking lots. 'Rules of the game' The developers of Bloomfield Heights said recently they have every intention of complying with the Endangered Species Act. “We play by the rules of the game,” said Keith Faseler, land division president of McGuyer Homebuilders of Houston, which has taken the lead in developing both tracts. “Bottom line, we understand that when we develop (Bloomfield Heights) we will have to take that into consideration.” Although he said he knew the Heights has endangered species issues, his company wanted to go through the city permitting process with its original plan anyway. He held out that, in the future, the species could leave the property or become delisted and the development could go forward as planned. Cannizzo, the environmental lawyer for Camp Bullis and Fort Sam Houston, questioned why a developer would spend money on such a project. “Seems like a funny business model,” he said. Faseler said he was told by the original developer, Monte Cristo, that for the Hills all approvals were in place. The only thing left to do was sell homes. Faseler deferred questions to Henry Isaac, the founder of Monte Cristo Developers, based in Dearborn, Mich. Isaac is listed as the authorized representative for Bloomfield Heights but says he is no longer the lead on either. Isaac said by email that the Bloomfield Hills plan relied on a 2006 report by an environmental firm and surveys by SWCA Environmental Consultants in 1991 and 1995. He said to ask SWCA for the surveys. But that company would not provide them when asked and said it had no comment. “We are not in the business of developing properties that would violate any local agency requirements,” Isaac wrote in his email. When the two Bloomfield developments and 2011 survey were brought to the attention of the USFWS by the Express-News, the agency said it would review them. “There is the potential that take could have occurred, and the service is going to be looking into the matter further,” said Adam Zerrenner, field supervisor for the USFWS Austin office. It isn't perfect For a development to cause “take” of a species and thus violate the Endangered Species Act, the USFWS has to prove the developer changed the habitat significantly to impair breeding, feeding and sheltering, Mowad explained. Putting in a single road through habitat may not qualify, he said. But lining that road with houses, as the plan for Bloomfield Hills shows, so the habitat is gone or is so fragmented the species can't use it anymore, would be, he said. Even if a development firm does comply with the city's rule about acknowledging the Endangered Species Act and files surveys with USFWS that show the presence of endangered species, it could still destroy habitat without the agency's knowledge, USFWS biologist Christina Williams said. “The reality is that we may have the information that it had birds, like in this incidence,” she said. “But we have no idea a subdivision was going in there until someone tells us.” She said it is now easier to start an investigation because the developer will have created a paper trail with the city. But the system isn't perfect. For Cannizzo, that is maddening. Last year the Army spent $1.5 million, added to Bexar County's $4.8 million, to buy undeveloped land on the Dierks Ranch in West Comal County as substitute warbler habitat for Camp Bullis. As he watches more developments go in around Bullis without any mitigation being done and more warblers showing up on the base, Cannizzo can't help but think developers are getting away with violating the Endangered Species Act. “It really time for USFWS to step up and enforce the ESA,” he said. cmcdon...@express-news.net Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/environment/article/Subdivisions-in-habitat-of-2-species-get-feds-3432888.php#ixzz1qS7RjRON --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
