Reforms Urged in Balancing Development, Environment

Some prominent California environmental groups are urging wide-ranging reforms in a landmark program intended to balance growth with the needs of wildlife.

A letter to be delivered to Sacramento legislative leaders today calls for more extensive scientific review, more public comment and a host of other changes in a program that has become key to protecting endangered plants and animals in fast-growing areas of Southern California.

The program, called the Natural Community Conservation Plan, was launched by Gov. Pete Wilson’s administration in 1991 and has won strong support from the Clinton administration. At its inception, it was hailed by government officials, landowners and conservationists as a model vehicle to bring environmentalists and developers together to save wildlife without compromising economic success.

The letter from 34 environmental groups states that, although they support many of the program’s concepts, “we find that NCCPs have often failed adequately to protect endangered species and their habitats. Legislation is needed to clarify the purpose and procedures of the NCCP program so that its full potential can be realized.”

Among signers are Sierra Club California, Defenders of Wildlife, the California League of Conservation Voters, the Planning and Conservation League and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The letter was spearheaded by the California Native Plant Society.

Emily Roberson, senior land management analyst for the Native Plant Society, said part of the impetus for the letter was disenchantment with the program. And “part of it is trying to make something better,” she said. “We’re trying to go in now, while the program is growing, and make it realize its potential.”

In particular, some environmental groups have grown worried that too little scientific study is preceding development.

The letter urges legislators to incorporate such concepts as more thorough scientific review to assure that development plans are working properly. It also encourages more public input, measurable biological goals and objectives and more stringent laws and enforcement.

Some environmental groups have been quietly lobbying in Sacramento in recent months for stricter standards for the program.

Said Bill Craven, state director of the Sierra Club: “The issue of establishing NCCP standards probably will be undertaken next year, so we’re getting our marker in early.”

But a representative of the California Building Industry Assn. expressed concern.

“If there’s a need to provide more substance, we think that’s fine, as long as it’s clarification as opposed to more stringent requirements,” said Cliff Moriyama, legislative advocate for the builders group.

One prominent environmental group that did not sign the letter is the Nature Conservancy; an official said Monday that the organization does not typically sign advocacy letters.

The NCCP program was created amid controversy over the California gnatcatcher, a threatened songbird that lives in coastal Southern California on some of the nation’s most expensive real estate.

Under the program, planners try to set aside large reserves of land for rare plants and animals. In exchange, participating landowners are freed from some strict endangered-species laws when they develop on certain land outside the reserves.

In Orange County, for instance, the Irvine Co. helped create a 37,000-acre reserve in an effort that has won national attention as a model compromise between development and wildlife concerns.