City Council
MEETING DATE: 8/10/2016
TITLE:
Title
Payment to the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission (CVCC) for the Cathedral Canyon Drive Bridge Conservation Easement Endowment
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FROM:
John A. Corella, P. E., City Engineer
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff recommends the City Council approve a one-time payment of $75,000 to the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission (CVCC) to fund the Cathedral Canyon Drive Bridge Conservation Easement Endowment and authorize the City Manager to execute the Conservation Easement Deed when received from the CVCC.
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BACKGROUND:
Construction of the upcoming Cathedral Canyon Drive Bridge Project (Bridge Project) will result in 5.84 acres of temporary and 2.01 acres of permanent unavoidable impacts to waters of the United States within the Whitewater River Stormwater Channel. As a condition of approval to issue a Section 404 Permit to construct the Bridge, the United States Army Corps of Engineers has required Cathedral City to establish a Long Term Management Plan (LTMP) to describe compensatory habitat lands to be managed in perpetuity as mitigation for the Bridge Project's impacts. The subject mitigation lands are being established for long-term conservation and are located within the Upper East Cathedral Canyon Wash (ECCW). These lands are also referred to herein as the Conservation Easement Area ("Project Lands"). The Project Lands will be conserved to compensate for unavoidable impacts to the Whitewater River Stormwater Channel, and to conserve and to protect Waters of the U.S. and covered habitat.
The Project Lands include 9 acres of Waters of the U.S., consisting of Desert Dry Wash Woodland (DDWW) and 9.5 acres of adjacent desert scrub habitat, and totaling 18.7? acres. Both waters of the US and buffer lands are accounted for in the mitigation requirement for both permanent and temporary impacts. The LTMP Signatory Agencies are the City of Cathedral City, the Los Angeles District of the U.S....
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