Bird Grounds Some Landowners

In a move with broad implications for future growth, federal wildlife officials have begun denying permits to some southern Orange County landowners seeking to clear plots of land containing rare California gnatcatchers.

A few landowners recently learned they cannot immediately move ahead and grade single-family lots because of uncertainty over how many of the federally protected birds still reside in the region given the current building boom.

The federal clampdown comes as a reminder of how growth is intrinsically tied to the welfare of a tiny bird that mews like a kitten and dwells on some of the nation’s most desirable and expensive coastal real estate.

It also foreshadows what could be in store--significant building delays on a larger scale--if developers, government officials and environmentalists fail to move ahead with a landmark program to create wildlife preserves in Orange County and elsewhere in the region.

“It’s frustrating to see this process grinding its gears like this,” said conservation biologist Dennis Murphy, a key player in crafting that program in the early 1990s.

The extent of the problem won’t be known for several weeks, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service completes a study of the local gnatcatcher population.

Under the best scenario for birds and builders alike, the review could find so many gnatcatchers that regulators can resume issuing permits. But in a worst-case scenario, if regulators find the gnatcatcher’s future is imperiled, they could be forced to choose a more time-consuming permitting process, slowing down the rate of South County development until a special nature preserve is completed.

Officials don’t know which projects could be slowed. But county has drawn up a list of South County projects that could disrupt gnatcatchers or their habitat before the preserve is in place. That rough-draft list, requested by the Fish and Wildlife Service, includes two car dealerships, homes in Coto de Caza, the controversial Saddleback Meadows housing project and the 434-home Marblehead development in San Clemente.

“We need to ask ourselves again, ‘Are we giving too much? Is it jeopardizing the species?’ ” said John Bradley, the service’s supervising biologist for Orange and Los Angeles counties.

The new wariness on the part of wildlife regulators hints at the fragility of a nationally acclaimed 1993 compromise intended to quell a clash between property rights and the Endangered Species Act in Southern California’s sage-specked coastal hills.

The reason: Construction of several major housing projects in the San Clemente area may have exhausted the number of South County gnatcatchers allowed to be harmed or disturbed under the 1993 compromise.

That compromise was supposed to be merely a temporary measure. It permitted limited land development and gnatcatcher losses while wilderness preserves were designed to protect rare species.

But more than five years later, creation of a planned 40,000-acre-plus South County preserve is lagging far behind schedule, stretching the limits of the temporary rules. While county officials overseeing the reserve’s creation predicted in May that a draft reserve design could be ready by July, that deadline has been missed. Some say a draft may not materialize until late this year.

In the meantime, with the bird limit reached or exceeded, small landowners have been caught in the squeeze.

Already, some landowners attempting to build homes in Coto de Caza are entangled in endangered species red tape--exactly the scenario the compromise was supposed to avoid. The precise number could change because more permits are in the pipeline.

The property owners are “in shock. I hear from some of them that it’s the first time they’ve heard there are gnatcatchers out there,” said Gary Medeiros, county chief of resource planning. “They’re not large companies, and they can’t afford to be overextended like this. . . . They’re a bit upset with the whole situation, and I don’t blame them.”

Medeiros and Fish and Wildlife officials are working to design short-term solutions so that the Coto de Caza landowners can build their homes. But a larger question remains: What will the service decide when it completes its review of the gnatcatcher’s well-being throughout Southern California?

The current situation is rekindling memories of the early 1990s, when the impending listing of the tiny gnatcatcher on the federal endangered species list sparked a regional development debate.

The gnatcatcher lives in coastal sage scrub, a mix of plants that once blanketed the coastal hills of Southern California. Today, with 90% of sage scrub developed, it ranks as one of the most endangered habitats in the United States.

Under the guidelines, no more than 5% of the coastal sage scrub or 5% of gnatcatchers population was to be destroyed during the reserve planning process.

About 562 pair of gnatcatchers remained in South County this spring, federal biologists said. The guidelines allowed for 19 pair--or 38 birds--to be harmed by development in South County. But the Forster Ranch project and other recent permits gave the go-ahead for 58 gnatcatchers to be removed or destroyed, including two lost with plans for a new South County high school.

Now, another review is underway, and some officials believe Forster Ranch pushed the gnatcatcher count below the federal guidelines.

Federal regulators are reviewing how many gnatcatchers really live in the region and whether further building will jeopardize their survival. That study is legally required because federal tallies showed the number of harmed gnatcatchers was near or at the limit. Until the study is completed in late September or early October, officials said they will hold off issuing new permits for clearing areas inhabited by the songbird. They are continuing to allow clearing of bird-free coastal sage scrub.

Some finger-pointing is accompanying the current gnatcatcher snafu.

County planning official Tim Neely calls the small landowners’ plight a “procedural crisis,” and he criticizes the Fish and Wildlife Service for not moving more quickly to craft a solution after issuing a flurry of permits to major developers in February.

“I don’t know why it’s taking as long as it is,” Neely said.

That’s exactly what some federal regulators and environmentalists are saying about the long-delayed South County reserve plan, which many consider the ultimate panacea for the gnatcatcher problem. That reserve is being designed under county oversight in tandem with the Rancho Mission Viejo LLC, southern Orange County’s largest landowner.

A rare public meeting on the plan brought a standing room-only crowd of more than 200 people to a San Clemente school auditorium in May. Many voiced concerns about the impact of new development on what some call “the lost wilderness,” a huge expanse of open land largely owned by Rancho Mission Viejo LLC and brimming with rare plants and animals such as the gnatcatcher.

“They had that public meeting but nothing’s happened,” said Dan Silver, coordinator of the Endangered Habitats League, a conservation group.

Diane Gaynor, spokeswoman for the Rancho Mission Viejo, disputed the notion that preserve planning is behind schedule. Instead, talks have expanded to include wetlands preservation as part of the preserve design, she said.

Some critics point to the flurry of permits that the Fish and Wildlife Service issued in the days leading up to the Feb. 15 start of gnatcatcher nesting season, a six-month period when grading is discouraged. One especially controversial permit was issued Feb. 11 to the 1,037-home Forster Ranch project in San Clemente, allowing habitat of 33 gnatcatchers to be destroyed.

In all, four permits allowing the clearing of land containing 49 South County gnatcatchers were granted immediately before nesting season began--including permits for the massive Ladera and Talega Valley developments. By contrast, one landowner recently denied a permit had a lot containing two gnatcatchers, and another man’s lot contained a single bird.

Murphy, the chief architect of conservation guidelines for Gov. Pete Wilson’s Natural Community Conservation Planning program, criticized the Forster Ranch permit as “a horrible, horrible deal. I don’t know what was going on. . . . Some squeaky-wheel event resulted in what I would consider a disproportionate take of habitat on this one property.”

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California Gnatcatcher

Status: Federal endangered species

Population: An estimated 3,200 pair in Southern California; 560 pair in South County

Size: 4 inches

Markings: Blue-gray with a long black tail

Habitat: Coastal sage scrub, a mix of sagebrush and grasses found in Orange, San Diego, western Riverside, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties

Sound: Mews like a kitten

Sources: Orange County Environmental Management Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service