Saticoy & Wells Community Plan & Development ... - City Of Ventura

Saticoy & Wells Community Plan and Code EIRSection 4.4 Biological Resources(listed in BIO-1) would also enhance the potential for wildlife movement by requiring landscapethat conserves and re-establishes native habitat to riparian corridors. And Action 11.1.4 (listedin BIO-4) and Action 11.1.7 (listed in BIO-2) would convert the Franklin Barranca to a naturalwatercourse and would promote restoration of areas that have been previously degraded. Thismay include enhancement to wildlife corridors, thus also enhancing the potential for wildlifemovement. Therefore, impacts to wildlife movement would be less than significant.Mitigation Measures. Compliance with the 2005 General Plan and implementation ofCommunity Plan policies and actions would reduce impacts to wildlife corridors to a less thansignificant level. Mitigation is not required.Significance After Mitigation. Impacts would be less than significant withoutmitigation.c. Cumulative Impacts. The significance of cumulative impacts to biological resources isbased upon:• The cumulative contribution of the projects and other approved and proposed projectsto fragmentation of open space in the project vicinity• The loss of sensitive habitats and species• Contribution of the projects to urban expansion into natural areas• Isolation of open space within the proposed Project Area by future projects in thevicinityDevelopment facilitated by the Project, in conjunction with other development in the City, wouldcontinue to disturb areas with potential biological resources. As discussed in Section 3.0,Environmental Setting, planned cumulative development associated with the growth forecasts ofthe 2005 General Plan in the City of Ventura would add about 8,300 dwelling units, as well asabout 1.2 million square feet of retail development, 1.2 million square feet of officedevelopment, 2.2 million square feet of industrial development, and 530,000 square feet of hoteldevelopment. Biological resource impacts related to cumulative development are dependentupon the specific site and nature of an individual development.As described in the 2005 General Plan FEIR, the 2005 General Plan’s growth forecasts focusespredominantly on intensification and reuse of already developed areas and limited expansioninto agricultural and/or relatively undisturbed areas. Policy 3C of the 2005 General Planrequires the City to maximize use of land in the city before considering expansion. Otheractions focus on reducing impacts to biological resources to less than significant. Action 1.8 ofthe 2005 General Plan requires buffers from the Santa Clara River in order to minimize potentialimpacts to riparian and ruderal vegetation near the river’s floodplain to a less than significantlevel. Action 1.9 requires the use of native landscaping adjacent to rivers, creeks, and barrancas,which addresses potential indirect adverse effects to downstream fish, wildlife, and vegetationas a result of water quality degradation associated with increased human activity. Action 1.23requires developments to incorporate trees and Action 1.24 requires maintenance of indigenoustrees or replacement of native trees. In addition, Action 1.10 requires restoration of channelizedbarrancas and creeks to a quasi-natural condition to the extent feasible. As such,implementation of 2005 General Plan policies and actions would generally avoid direct impacts4.4-21City of Ventura