City of Poway Hazardous Mitigation Grant Program

2022040140

City of Poway

NOE - Notice of Exemption

4/6/2022

4/6/2022

David De Vries

City of Poway

City Planner

Lead/Public Agency

13325 Civic Center Drive
Poway, CA 92064

(858) 668-4604

DDeVries@poway.org

92064

Ministerial

Sec. 15268

The City has made the determination that the project is exempt from CEQA pursuant to one ministerial exemption, CEQA Guidelines Section 15268, and one categorical exemption, CEQA Guidelines Section 15304, Minor Alterations to Land. The use of an exemption must not result in a cumulative impact, must not result in a significant impact as a result of unusual circumstances, must not affect resources visible from a scenic highway, must not be located on a hazardous waste site, and must not affect historic resources. In addition, a Class 4 exemption, which would apply to the project, is qualified by consideration of where the project is to be located - a project that is ordinarily insignificant in its impact on the environment may in a particularly sensitive environment be significant. The rationale that explains why these proposed improvements are exempt from CEQA is outlined below. Ministerial Exemption 15268, applies to projects that are considered "ministerial." Per CEQA Guidelines Section 15268, the determination of what is "ministerial" can most appropriately be made by the particular public agency involved based upon its analysis of its own laws, and each public agency should make such determination either as a part of its implementing regulations or on a case-by-case basis. The City has made this determination pursuant to the City Tree Removal Permit, outlined in Section 12.32.110 of the City's Municipal Code, which applies to trees growing on public property and public ROW. Section 12.32.110, states that "no person, including the City, shall remove a public tree or a tree growing on a public right-of-way without first obtaining a tree removal permit issued by the Director of Public Services or his/her designee. The City shall notify the adjoining property owner and occupant 10 days prior to the removal of a tree within the public right-of-way on classified residential streets. The tree removal permit authorizing the removal of a specific tree on public property or on a public right-of-way shall be subject to terms and conditions deemed appropriate by the Director of Public Services or his/her designee. The Director of Public Services shall review each tree removal permit application and make a recommendation as to whether the permit shall be issued or denied. The Director of Development Services is responsible for tree removal permit record keeping." Per Section 12.32.11 O of the City's Municipal Code, the City shall obtain a tree removal permit for trees located on public property and public ROW. In addition, some trees along Twin Peaks Road are located within private property. Therefore, per Section 12.32.150, Private Tree Removal Permit, of the City's Municipal Code, "the property owner shall first obtain a private tree removal permit authorizing the removal of a private tree that is a native tree or a heritage tree subject to terms and conditions deemed appropriate by the Director of Development Services or his/her designee." The private properties along Twin Peaks Road are classified as a City prescriptive easement. The City will conduct outreach to coordinate homeowner consent from 89 property owners for any trees removed within the prescriptive easement and obtain the necessary permits on behalf of the property owner. Section 16.42.010 of the City's Municipal Code requires a grading permit for any grading, excavation, earth moving, filling, clearing, brushing, or grubbing on natural or existing grade, but exempts clearing and brushing of vegetation that is a potential fire hazard without significant damage to habitat (subsection K). Section 8. 76.030 of the City's Municipal Code requires the reduction and removal of flammable vegetation deemed to be a fire hazard and public nuisance by the Fire Marshal or Director of Development Services. Because this is an administrative permit, that is anticipated to be granted, with limited or no replacement mitigation required. Therefore, through implementation of the existing tree removal regulations outlined in the City's Municipal Code, the project would be considered ministerial. Consistent with these findings for a ministerial exemption, the Poway Fire Department Interim Fire Chief and the City's Director of Development Services confirm that the project qualifies for an exemption under Section 15268.

Categorical Exemption

Sec. 15304, Minor Alterations to Land

In addition, the proposed project would be exempt from CEQA per Categorical Exemption 15304, Minor Alterations to Land which indicates that "minor public or private alterations in the condition of land, water and/or vegetation which do not involve removal of healthy, mature, scenic trees except for forestry or agricultural purposes. Examples include, but are not limited to: i) fuel management activities within 30 feet of structures to reduce the volume of flammable vegetation, provided that the activities will not result in the taking of endangered, rare, or threatened plant or animal species or significant erosion and sedimentation of surface waters. This exemption shall apply to fuel management activities within 100 feet of a structure if the public agency having fire protection responsibility for the area has determined that 100 feet of fuel clearance is required due to extra hazardous fire conditions." Although the proposed project would result in removal of trees, the proposed project would implement fuel management with the goal of providing fire suppression through vegetation removal. The City consulted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE), Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB), and California Department of Fish and Wildfire (CDFW) at a round table meeting on February 9, 2021, hosted by CDFW and attended by 14 other agencies, to confirm jurisdictional interest or if there are any additional information/notifications needed by the resource agencies prior to scheduling project activities for the Green Valley Open Space Area. ACOE and RWQCB indicated that there is no interest in assuming jurisdiction or a need to apply for a certification based on the scope, nature, and impacts of the project. CDFW has indicated a request for more information regarding impacts to nesting activities, and natural resource inventory. A biological technical memorandum (memo) was prepared for the proposed activities at Twin Peaks Road and Espola Road while an additional biological technical memo was prepared for the proposed activities at the Green Valley Open Space Area {biological technical memos) (Dudek 2022a; Dudek 2022b). The biological technical memos included literature review and field survey of the project site and determined that no federally or state-listed wildlife species have a potential to occur within the project site. Only the migratory California species of special concern, yellow warble, has a moderate potential to occur within the Green Valley Open Space Area. However, the project would adhere to nesting bird protections; therefore, the project would not result in direct or indirect impacts to special-status wildlife species or nesting birds. Impacts to the yellow warble or other or nesting bird species would be further reduced because native trees would be protected. Through compliance with the MBTA, to be incorporated as a project design feature (see Project Description, above), the proposed project would not result in impacts to biological resources. No native tree species would be removed under the proposed project except for any dead or severely diseased native trees. In addition, the biological technical memos determined that the Green Valley Open Space Area contains several potentially sensitive vegetation communities including southern arroyo willow riparian forest, southern coast live oak riparian forest, and coast live oak woodland. However, protections will be in place to only remove dead or severely diseased and non-native and invasive tree species and only trim native trees up where necessary to reduce "fire-ladder" tendencies. All native trees and vegetation will be maintained and protected in place unless they are dead or severely diseased. Lastly, the Green Valley Open Space Area contains US Army Corps of Engineers, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Regional Water Quality Control Board jurisdictional water features. However, each agency has been approached and concurs that with implementation of the project design features listed above (see Project Description, above); therefore, no potentially jurisdictional areas will be affected. Lastly, the project would comply with the City's Municipal Code, as it relates to tree removal. As discussed above and in the biological technical memos, no replacement mitigation would be required under the proposed project. Lastly, the project would be consistent with the Poway Natural Community Conservation Plan (NCCP)/Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) Subarea Plan Area. In addition, a Section 106 review was performed for the proposed project and the results were included in the Poway HMGP Hazardous Tree Removal Project Section 106 Review Memo (Dudek 2022c). The Section 106 review memo included a records search to identify any previously recorded historic properties that may be located within the area of potential effects (APE). There are no historic properties located within the APE that are listed or potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places or California Register of Historical Resources. Therefore, no impacts to existing historic properties would occur as a result of the proposed project. Additionally, all trees would be cut at grade. Since there would be no ground disturbing activities, it is anticipated that there would be no effects to previously undiscovered historic properties by the proposed project. The project is not located in the vicinity of a state scenic highway and therefore would not affect resources visible from a scenic highway. In addition, the project would be largely located within existing ROW or open space areas and no ground disturbance would occur. Therefore, the project is not anticipated to be located on a hazardous waste site or result in impacts associated with hazardous waste (DSTC 2022, SWRCB 2022, Water Board 2022a, and Water Board 2022b). Because no impacts would occur as a result of the proposed project, it is not anticipated that the project would not result in cumulative impacts. Lastly, consistent with these findings for a ministerial exemption, the Poway Fire Department Interim Fire Chief and the City's Director of Development Services confirm that the project qualifies for an exemption under Section 15304(i). For the above reasons, City finds that the proposed project would be exempt from CEQA.