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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 5 (Wednesday, January 8, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1538-1539]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-00230]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[Docket No. FWS-R8-ES-2024-0188; FXES11140800000-256-FF08EVEN00]

Receipt of Incidental Take Permit Application and Proposed 
Habitat Conservation Plan for the Coastal California Gnatcatcher, 
Ventura County, CA; Categorical Exclusion

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce receipt 
of an application from Angie Harbin, Director--Natural Resources, 
Rincon Consultants, Inc., on behalf of Comstock Homes (applicant) for 
an incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act. The 
applicant requests the ITP to take the federally listed coastal 
California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica) incidental 
to residential development in the City of Moorpark, in Ventura County, 
California. We request public comment on the application, which 
includes the applicant's proposed habitat conservation plan (HCP), and 
on the Service's preliminary determination that the proposed permitting 
action may be eligible for a categorical exclusion pursuant to the 
Council on Environmental Quality's National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA) regulations, the Department of the Interior's (DOI) NEPA 
regulations, and the DOI Departmental Manual. To make this preliminary 
determination, we prepared a low-effect screening form. The HCP and 
low-effect screening form are available for public review. We invite 
comment from the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies.

DATES: We must receive your written comments on or before February 7, 
2025.

ADDRESSES: 
    Obtaining Documents: The documents this notice announces, as well 
as any comments and other materials that we receive, will be available 
for public inspection online in Docket No. FWS-R8-ES-2024-0188 at 
https://www.regulations.gov.
    Submitting Comments: If you wish to submit comments on any of the 
documents, you may do so in writing by one of the following methods:
     Online: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments on Docket No. FWS-R8-ES-2024-0188.
     U.S. mail: Public Comments Processing; Attn: Docket No. 
FWS-R8-ES-2024-0188; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; MS: PRB/3W; 5275 
Leesburg Pike; Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Chris Dellith, Senior Fish and 
Wildlife Biologist, by email at [email protected], via phone at 
805-644-1766, or by U.S. mail at 2493 Portola Road, Suite B, Ventura, 
CA 93003. Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, 
hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or 
TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals 
outside the United States should use the relay services offered within 
their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in 
the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), 
announce receipt of an application from Angie Harbin, Director--Natural 
Resources, Rincon Consultants, Inc., on behalf of Comstock Homes 
(applicant) for an incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered 
Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). The 
applicant requests the ITP to take the federally threatened coastal 
California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica) incidental 
to the development of a mixed-density residential community (project) 
in the City of Moorpark, Ventura County, California. We request public 
comment on the application, which includes the applicant's habitat 
conservation plan (HCP), and on the Service's preliminary determination 
that this proposed ITP qualifies as low effect, and may qualify for a 
categorical exclusion pursuant to the Council on Environmental 
Quality's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations (40 CFR 
1501.4), the Department of the Interior's (DOI) NEPA regulations (43 
CFR 46), and the DOI's Departmental Manual (516 DM 8.5(C)(2)). To make 
this preliminary determination, we prepared a low-effect screening 
form, also available for public review.

Background

    On March 30, 1993 (58 FR 16742), the Service listed the coastal 
California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica) as 
threatened. Section 9 of the ESA prohibits ``take'' of fish and 
wildlife species listed as endangered (16 U.S.C. 1538), where take is 
defined to include the following activities: ``to harass, harm, pursue, 
hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to 
engage in any such conduct'' (16 U.S.C. 1532). The take prohibitions of 
section 9 are extended to species listed as threatened at the 
discretion of the Secretary of the Department of the Interior and were 
extended to coastal California gnatcatcher, with exceptions. The 
Service published a 4(d) rule, which includes exceptions to incidental 
take associated land-use activities addressed in an approved Natural 
Community Conservation Planning Act program

[[Page 1539]]

undertaken by the State of California and local governments (December 
10, 1993; 58 FR 65088).
    Under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1539(a)(1)(B)), we 
may issue permits to authorize take of listed fish and wildlife species 
that is incidental to, and not the purpose of, carrying out an 
otherwise lawful activity. Regulations governing incidental take 
permits for endangered and threatened species are in the Code of 
Federal Regulations (CFR) at 50 CFR 17.22 and 17.32, respectively. 
Issuance of an ITP also must not jeopardize the existence of federally 
listed fish, wildlife, or plant species. The permittee would receive 
assurances under our ``No Surprises'' regulations (50 CFR 17.22(b)(5) 
and 17.32(b)(5)).

Applicant's Proposed Activities

    The applicant has applied for a permit for incidental take of the 
coastal California gnatcatcher. The take would occur in association 
with activities necessary for the development of a largely vacant 
277.30-acre (ac) site by constructing residences, a neighborhood park 
site, and flood-control facilities, as well as enhancement of disturbed 
coastal sage scrub vegetation on 52.77 ac of conserved land for the 
coastal California gnatcatcher.
    The HCP includes avoidance and minimization measures for the 
coastal California gnatcatcher, and mitigation for unavoidable loss of 
occupied habitat. The applicant will commensurately offset impacts by 
placing conservation easements over approximately 29.44 ac of the 
project site and enhancing 23.33 ac on adjacent parcels of conserved 
open space areas owned by the City of Moorpark.

Public Availability of Comments

    If you submit a comment at https://www.regulations.gov, your entire 
comment, including any personal identifying information, will be posted 
on the website.
    If you submit a hardcopy comment that includes personal identifying 
information, such as your address, phone number, or email address, you 
should be aware that your entire comment, including your personal 
identifying information, may be made publicly available at any time. 
While you can ask us in your hardcopy document to withhold your 
personal identifying information from public review, we cannot 
guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Our Preliminary Determination

    The Service has made a preliminary determination that the 
applicant's proposed project would individually and cumulatively have a 
minor effect on the coastal California gnatcatcher and the human 
environment. Therefore, we have preliminarily determined that the 
proposed ESA section 10(a)(1)(B) permit would be a ``low-effect'' ITP 
that individually or cumulatively would have a minor effect on the 
species and may qualify for application of a categorical exclusion 
pursuant to the Council on Environmental Quality's NEPA regulations, 
DOI's NEPA regulations, and the DOI Departmental Manual. A ``low-
effect'' ITP is one that would result in (1) minor or nonsignificant 
effects on species covered in the HCP; (2) nonsignificant effects on 
the human environment; and (3) impacts that, when added together with 
the impacts of other past, present, and reasonable foreseeable actions, 
would not result in significant cumulative effects to the human 
environment.

Next Steps

    The Service will evaluate the application and the comments received 
to determine whether to issue the requested ITP. We will also conduct 
an intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA to 
evaluate the effects of the proposed take. After considering the 
preceding and other matters, we will determine whether the permit 
issuance criteria of section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA have been met. If 
met, the Service will issue an ITP to the applicant.

Authority

    We provide this notice under section 10(c) of the Endangered 
Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and its implementing regulations 
(50 CFR 17.22 and 17.32) and the National Environmental Policy Act (42 
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and its implementing regulations (40 CFR 1500-1508 
and 43 CFR 46).

Catherine Darst,
Acting Field Supervisor, Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office, Ventura, 
California.
[FR Doc. 2025-00230 Filed 1-7-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4333-15-P
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