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August 1, 2012
San Rafael City Council
1400 Fifth Avenue
P.O. Box 151560
San Rafael, CA 94915-1560
Reject San Rafael Airport
Recreational Facility EIR
The Center for Biological Diversity urges
the San Rafael City Council to not
certify
the final Environmental Impact
Report for the proposed San
Rafael Airport Recreational
Facility and reject the project
as proposed as well as the
attempted rezoning of the
property. There are significant concerns
abut the
inadequacy of
the EIR and the failure
to fully address impacts to
endangered species resulting from
the project. Legal approval would require revisions to the project to
avoid impacts to endangered species; we
strongly suggest that an alternative location
without habitat
for sensitive wildlife species be
found for the proposed sports
facility.
There are other, more suitable
locations for a sports complex;
there are very few remaining
places that endangered
California clapper
rails still call home.
The proposed project would require a significant change in
land use, with attendant noise, nighttime
lighting and disturbance impacts
on endangered species that
are not adequately
mitigated
in the proposed project. The environmental
review for the project was
severely flawed and does not meet
the standards of the California
Environmental
Quality Act.
The proposed facility and its uses will have
potentially significant impacts
on several wildlife species protected under the
federal
Endangered Species Act (California clapper rail, salt
marsh harvest mouse and Central
Coast
steelhead
trout) and a
bird
species fully protected under the California Endangered
Species Act, the black
rail.
We have reviewed the final EIR prepared by
the San Rafael Planning
Department as well as comments
and concerns from local
conservation groups.
The EIR does not comply
with the California Environmental
Quality Act, since it does not
adequately describe
the project or evaluate all uses
that would be permitted,
fails to adequately analyze and
mitigate the project’s
significant
environmental
impacts, and does not adequately
discuss
alternatives to the
proposed
project.
The proposed project would have unacceptable
and unmitigated
impacts on an important
breeding population of the critically
imperiled California
clapper rail.
Surveys in 2008
identified only 543 clapper rails
in the entire San Francisco
Bay Area. The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife
Service initial
recovery
plan
for
the California clapper rail (U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service 1984) and the recent
draft updated recovery plan (U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service 2010)
identify the clapper rail
breeding
population in Gallinas Creek as one
of
the most
important in the North Bay.
Despite the fact that the project
includes an 85,700 square foot
indoor sports building, two outdoor astroturf
soccer fields,
a 300-space asphalt parking lot,
night-time
lighting and activity, and all
the attendant human use and impacts,
the
EIR erroneously concludes that the project
will not have a significant impact
on clapper rails.
The EIR takes the unsupported position that
since a biological consultant (Monk and Associates) did not find
clapper rails immediately
along the shoreline of the
project site there will not be
direct, significant
impacts to clapper rails. The
Planning Department has been
made aware of additional surveys
done by clapper rail experts with
Point Reyes
Bird Observatory and
Avocet Research, which documented
numerous clapper rails along the
closest shoreline to the project site, as
well as throughout the middle,
south and upper reaches of Gallinas Creek (2009 PRBO report to
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service). Additionally, Monk and Associates, PRBO and
Avocet Research all documented
numerous clapper rail
occurrences
along the north fork of Gallinas
Creek within 200 feet of the footprint of the project, well within range for
direct and indirect impacts on
clapper rails from construction
and use noise, lighting and human
activity associated with uses of
the proposed project.
The
EIR also incorrectly
assumes that clapper
rails in the vicinity
of the
project
site have somehow
adapted to the presence of humans
and human activities,
implying that construction
disturbance, human presence,
noise, lighting, and human-adapted
predators resulting from
the project will not
result in
significant
impacts
on nearby clapper
rails. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s expert opinion is that
California
clapper rails are sensitive
to human
disturbance,
particularly during breeding season. Excessive human
disturbance and noise during rail breeding season
can disrupt breeding and even lead to nest abandonment
or reproductive failure. The
clapper rail recovery plan
concludes that although
the complete effects of human
disturbance on rails are unknown, they are potentially significant. The
EIR does not adequately address the likelihood of this level of impacts
from additive night
lighting, noise,
and creation of conditions favorable for human-adapted
predators, with resulting
potentially significant
threats to the species.
The project would likely increase predation
on rails by attracting non-native predators
such as Norway rats and feral cats and by inflating
populations of human-adapted
native predators such as ravens and raccoons. Man-made
structures and human
activity can increase predation
on clapper rails by providing
areas for nesting and roosting of avian predators
and attracting
rodents due to human
litter.
Human
activity and disturbance
in rail habitat
post-project
will most certainly
be considerably greater than
current conditions.
Clapper
rail habitat
in Gallinas Creek is currently
separated from most
urban activities by the airport runway safety zones, which keep human
disturbance in the marshes to
a minimum.
The exception is the pedestrian
and on-leash dog-walking trail along the north bank of the creek
bordering McInnis Park, which is minimally
used, primarily during
daylight hours. Existing
human disturbance and noise
occurs mostly on the south side
of North Fork Gallinas Creek. The
proposed project would bring considerably
more
human activity and noise
to the opposite bank of
the creek, where human
presence near the creek is
currently infrequent, there are no lights,
motion
and noise are infrequent,
mowing is seasonal,
traffic is limited to airport
users and nighttime activity is
essentially nonexistent. The proposed seasonal restrictions on construction
and buffer zones specified
as mitigation
measures do not eliminate
or significantly
reduce all
potential impacts
on clapper
rails.
Please
do not
certify the
final Environmental
Impact Report
for the
proposed San
Rafael Airport Recreational Facility.
We
encourage San Rafael to
work with all
stakeholders
to find a more suitable location
for the proposed sports facility.
Sincerely,
Jeff
Miller
Conservation Advocate
Center for Biological Diversity
The
Center for
Biological Diversity
is a
non-profit organization
that works
to protect
endangered species and
wild places
through
science, policy,
education,
citizen activism,
and environmental law.
The Center
has an
ongoing interest
in protecting
clapper rails
and other
endangered wildlife
in the
San Francisco
Bay Area.
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