Big win for proposed business park near airport

By Denny Walsh -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Wednesday, February 4, 2004

A planned mixed-use business park adjacent to Sacramento International Airport cleared a major legal hurdle Tuesday when a federal judge tossed out an environmental challenge, ruling that the developers plan more-than-adequate protection of two threatened species.

U.S. District Judge David F. Levi decided the species - the giant garter snake and the Swainson's hawk - might even be better off because of the Metro Air Park development.

That finding is not contested by the five conservation organizations that challenged the permit, Levi noted in his 20-page order.

Under the association's habitat conservation plan, "approximately 2,000 acres of poor habitat will be exchanged for 1,000 acres of conservation lands specifically managed to foster habitat for both the snake and hawk," the judge wrote. "The (Fish and Wildlife) Service could rationally conclude that the plan's acquisition criteria and management scheme ensure that mitigation land will provide habitat superior to that lost at the site, and that, far from jeopardizing the species, the plan will enhance their prospects for survival."

Earthjustice attorney Laura Robb, who represents the plaintiffs, does not see it that way.

"Important habitat is going to be destroyed," she said Tuesday. "Another slice of California heritage will be lost. I think that's a shame.

"What really upsets me is that this is one of the few areas close to an urban region where people can view these creatures. Now, it's going to be paved over, and that's an irreversible loss."

But Metro Air Park project manager Gerry Kamilos predicted the development would become a model of how "growth and the environment can co-exist."

"We have taken compliance with the Endangered Species Act very seriously," he said. "We have devoted a tremendous amount of blood and sweat getting to this point. This (habitat-conservation) plan can be successfully implemented.

"We know the environmentalists are watching us very, very carefully. It's like working in a fish bowl," he said.

The same group of conservationists successfully mounted an earlier attack on a habitat-conservation plan for the entire Natomas basin that had been approved by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Levi found that plan lacking in a number of respects.

A revised plan advanced by the city of Sacramento and Sutter County garnered federal approval last year. But the same coalition of environmentalists and conservationists has threatened to sue again if the Fish and Wildlife Service does not revoke the plan.

In the case of Metro Air Park, Levi ruled Tuesday that the agency "made all the proper statutory findings before issuing the ... permit," and its decision "is not arbitrary and capricious," as the plaintiffs argued.

Confident that they would prevail in the lawsuit, developers began grading in late September.

The park - east of the airport and north of Interstate 5 - is designed for about 20 million square feet of office space, light industrial installations, retail outlets, hotels and a golf course.

The ultimate building cost will be close to $2 billion, according to Kamilos, who is also one of the landowners. About 35,000 people are expected to be employed at the park when it is finished, he added.

The site is composed almost entirely of agricultural land, mostly rice fields. But, according to Levi's order, it has lain fallow for several years.

"When in active rice cultivation, the land provides valuable habitat for the giant garter snake; in its current fallow state, however, the habitat value of the land is minimal to both the snake and the Swainson's hawk, the two species of greatest concern," the judge wrote.

The snake is a threatened species under both federal and state endangered species acts. The hawk is listed as threatened only under the California act.

The plan approved by the Fish and Wildlife Service requires that, for every acre of land developed, half an acre must be acquired elsewhere in the Natomas basin and permanently protected and managed to maximize its value as habitat. Seventy-five percent of the mitigation lands must be maintained as rice fields or managed marsh. The remainder is to be preserved as uplands, primarily benefiting the hawk.

In addition to lands purchased under the half-acre-to-acre ratio, 200 contiguous acres must be established as a Swainson's hawk preserve to compensate for a nest in a tree on the project site.

The purchase and management of the mitigation lands will be handled by the Natomas Basin Conservancy, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the preservation of habitat in the basin.

The mitigation is funded by fees assessed at the time a grading permit is issued. The fee is currently $10,027 an acre, but is subject to adjustments tied to inflation and increased costs.

All of the mitigation lands must be purchased before issuance of grading permits for the last 10 percent of property within the project.

Kamilos estimates that it will take about 20 years to complete the project.

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