excerpted from
http://mountainenterprise.com/atf.php?sid=4761
April 10, 2009
"...Inside the box was the hard copy of a four-volume set of documents that, if printed from the online version at the FWS website, would total 5,200 pages of maps and data—equal to 10 reams of paper. This is the “Tehachapi Uplands Multispecies Habitat Conservation Plan” (HCP).
The window for public comment during this phase of the permitting process closes on May 5....
After 100 hours of effort among three people, we conclude these documents have not been proofread responsibly. They appear to have been prematurely released to the public for comment. As reporters, this is a disappointment. The stakes are high for the developer, for the endangered species and for the people of California....
--DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN MAPS AND TEXT IN HCP
--DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN MAPS AND TEXT IN THE DEIS
--INCONSISTENCIES REGARDING SIZE OF PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT
...The above sampling of notes reflect only a superficial preliminary overview of the sections of these documents specific to the California Condor, neglecting inquiry at this time into 26 other species..."
The window for public comment during this phase of the permitting process closes on May 5.
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and from part II, published 4/17/2009:
http://www.mountainenterprise.com/atf.php?sid=4738
Both Tejon Ranch Company and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service responded to the April 10 story. That is posted at the link above. The editors of the Mountain Enterprise posted this response to their responses:
"...We appreciate that both Tejon Ranch and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) shared their replies. We were surprised to see that both go to some effort to dodge the real question raised by The Mountain Enterprise:
It is not the length of the documents that is of concern, it is their sloppiness.
Contradictions between maps and text, maps and maps, text and text and DEIS to HCP are of such frequency and severity that they create a barricade of errors between the reader and meaningful consideration of the important science that should be the focus of such work.
It is a fiction to claim our report was about “complexity.” It is about self-contradiction within the documents themselves which create material obstruction to public comment. The result, we report with disappointment, creates a parody of what both writers here call “the public comment period.”"
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Meanwhile, a 600 to 800 home proposed housing tract in the same valley as Tejon's resort proposal is out of water...
excerpted from:
http://www.mountainenterprise.com/atf.php?sid=4727
"...In the April 14 interview, Hager (president of the board of the local water district) said, “Our consultants Kennedy/Jenks showed that the Arciero statistics were not accurate last time. If the new development had been built last year, our consultant said the whole [existing] community already here would have been out of water in nine to 12 months because of the drought.”
If built, Arceiro’s Frazier Park Estates would surround Frazier Mountain High School. Water table readings in the area in 2007-08 were shown to have plummeted 53 feet in a year. The first draft EIR for Frazier Park Estates was withdrawn in 2006 after substantial public comments pointed out numerous flaws in the draft EIR, including inadequate proof of a sufficient water supply to support the proposed doubling of the area’s population..."
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