Emerging Regulatory Experiments in Permit Process Coordination for Endangered Species and Aquatic Resources in California

• Date: 01 February 2016
• Author: Alejandro E. Camacho, Elizabeth M. Taylor, Melissa L. Kelly, and Stephanie L. Talavera

2-2016 NEWS & ANALYSIS 46 ELR 10131

Emerging

Regulatory

Experiments in

Permit Process

Coordination for

Endangered

Species and

Aquatic

Resources in

California

by Alejandro E. Camacho,

Elizabeth M. Taylor, Melissa L. Kelly,

and Stephanie L. Talavera

Summary

Many practitioners and scholars view enhanced permit

coordination as benecial due to purported eciency

gains and potentially better conservation outcomes, but

scholarship on interagency coordination is still limited.

e authors conducted extensive interviews and dia-

logue sessions to evaluate a range of eorts to coordi-

nate proposed California Habitat Conservation Plans/

Natural Community Conservation Plans with fresh-

water aquatic resource permits under federal and state

laws. In this Article, the authors share their ndings,

which revealed both benets and challenges, and make

policy recommendations for going forward.

Practitioners involved in developing several proposed

California Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs)/

Natural Community Conservation Plans (NCCPs)

under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA)1 and Cali-

fornia’s NCCP Act2 are currently undertaking a range of

eorts to coordinate those endangered species permitting

eorts with freshwater aquatic resource permits under the

federal Clean Water Act (CWA)3 §§404 and 401 and similar

state laws. Many practitioners and scholars view enhanced

permit coordination as benecial due to purported e-

ciency gains and potentially better conservation outcomes,4

although scholarship on interagency permit coordination is

still relatively limited.5 ese emerging regulatory experi-

ments provide an opportunity to explore the extent of such

benets, as well as some of the costs and challenges.

Prelimi nary research, includin g intervie ws6 and d ia-

logue se ssions,7 indicate s that most re spondents strongly

1. 16 U.S.C. §§1531-1544, ELR S. ESA §§2-18.

2. Natural Community Conservation Plan (NCCP) Act, C. F  G

C §§2800-2835.

3. 33 U.S.C. §§1251-1387, ELR S. FWPCA §§101-607.

4. See general ly Peter A. Bu chsbaum,    -

 , 36 U. L. 191 passim (2004) (suggesting

that permit co ordination in the HCP c ontext has promise as a way of

encouraging and guiding private developm ent while prot ecting environ-

mental valu es).

5. See id. at 192 (noting how little attention has been given to intergovern-

mental coordination of land use controls, such as permitting coordination);

see also Eric Biber & J.B. Ruhl, 

, 64 D L.J. 133,

150-55, 173-76 (2014) (discussing the lack of scholarship specically fo-

cused on permit coordination and design).

6. e University of California Irvine School of Law Center for Land, En-

vironment, and Natural Resources (CLEANR) conducted interviews and

preliminary research to survey the current permit coordination eorts

among California HCP/NCCPs. CLEANR conducted interviews with the

following: Katie Barrows, Coachella Valley Association of Governments;

Jim Bartel, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) (retired); Michael Beck,

Endangered Habitats League; omas Cavanaugh, U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers; Loren Clark, Placer County Planning Department; Dan Cox,

FWS; Kim Delno, Defenders of Wildlife; Abigail Fateman, East Contra

Costa County Habitat Conservancy; Lesley Hill, Orange County Transpor-

tation Authority; John Hopkins, California Habitat Conservation Planning

Coalition; Paul Jones, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Jan

Knight, FWS; Charles Landry, Western Riverside Regional Conservation

Authority; Chris Lee, Solano County Water Agency; Jennifer Norris, FWS;

Galen Schuler, Green Diamond Resource Company; Edmund Sullivan,

Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency; Eric Tattersall, FWS; Robert D. orn-

ton, Nossaman LLP; Michael Wellborn, California Watershed Network;

and Doug Wheeler, Hogan Lovells.

7. On July 30, 2015, CLEANR co-convened a roundtable on the issue of

permit process coordination with the Center for Collaboration in Gover-

nance (CCG) that was hosted by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI)

[hereinafter ELI Roundtable]. e dialogue at the ELI Roundtable built

on CLEANR’s research seeking to identify opportunities for coordinated

         



   

        

Kelly is a Fellow at Los Angeles Waterkeeper. Stephanie L. Talavera



Copyright © 2016 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.