Feds bring new hurdle to FORA's habitat protection plan.

As the Fort Ord Reuse Authority is set to expire in less than four years, the agency’s centerpiece environmental plan faces an unexpected hurdle – one that pushes the plan’s final approval precariously close to the end of FORA’s scheduled life.

The habitat conservation plan, in development since 1997, would both protect and monitor the nearly two dozen endangered plant and animal species found on the 28,000 acres of the former Fort Ord. It would also streamline the process for permitting future developments.

After 10 years of working closely on the plan, which creates wildlife corridors and targets areas for habitat restoration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service abruptly changed course. The federal agency informed FORA in a July 29 letter that certain federal lands at the Fort Ord National Monument cannot be included in FORA’s habitat conservation plan, which it had been counting on to comply with permitting requirements.

To build on the old Fort Ord, developers must receive permits from both the USFWS and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife that allow for localized destruction of endangered flora and fauna. Before issuing these permits, federal and state agencies look for habitat improvements elsewhere, to mitigate the harm of building.

With the conservation plan, two-thirds of Fort Ord lands will be left undeveloped with restoration goals for all 21 endangered species. This creates guarantees that developments on land slated for building won’t negatively impact the threatened species as a whole.

If the 14,658-acre Fort Ord National Monument is excluded from the plan, FORA’s costs would increase. Yet most damaging could be lost time.

The feds’ change in heart has set the $2-million and 19-year process back – optimistically – six months.

“I think this hiccup created a level of angst we didn’t need,” says Michael Houlemard, FORA’s executive officer. “We are on schedule to get this done and have it completed in the next 18 months.”

Yet, there is a sense of urgency to get the habitat conservation plan approved as FORA itself is set to be terminated on June 30, 2020. If there are more delays in the planning, or lawsuits that block the plan’s implementation, FORA could dissolve, leaving Monterey County and cities with Fort Ord lands to develop costly habitat conservation plans on their own.

“There is an exclamation point. There is an alert here that says if you want comprehensive long-term habitat protection at Ford Ord, we have to get this out now,” Houlemard says.

With FORA having only met 50 percent of its stated economic development goals, and plans for munitions removal scheduled to last through 2037, some board members think FORA’s mandate should be extended. An extension would need to be passed by the California State Legislature and signed by the governor, just like it was the first time FORA’s sunset date was extended in 2012, through 2020.

“The worst-case scenario is insane, it’s just nuts,” says Jerry Edelen, FORA board member and mayor of Del Rey Oaks. “If FORA expires and this isn’t complete, all the other jurisdictions will have to go through this process again individually, and Del Rey Oaks doesn’t have those resources.”