Lay Down Site

First and foremost if the pallet site is used for a lay down and parking site, it should be restored to Diegan coastal sage scrub and monitored for a minimum of five years to assure 90% survival of all the plants and establishment as a viable habitat for animals living in the river bottom. This is a conservation area that was illegally degraded in the past, but it needs to be restored if someone is to benefit from its former destruction. Also this would provide a buffer for the OVRP adjacent to this site.

Construction Site

The southern part of the site will be abandoned. The pavement needs to be removed from this site to compensate for the greater area to be paved to the north. The southern part of the site needs to be planted with native Diegan Coastal scrub and maintained as a viable habitat with a water source as per the guidelines of the city’s Naturescape Habitat program. This site should be monitored and maintained as native landscaping for the benefit of native wildlife in perpetuity.

Absolutely no construction activity producing noise should be allowed during nesting season.

Air Toxins

CEQUA requires that the maximum amount of hours the project is permitted for be used in determining impacts, not some imaginary supposition (San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center v County of Merced, 149 Cal. App. 4^th 645 (2007)). This means a significant effect upon the biological resources in the river park could be caused by this facility. The number of hours per day, week and year must be strictly limited with a guarantee that no waivers will be granted for any reason or preferably certification should be denied.

Bird Collisions

It is an incorrect statement that the likelihood of these would be low, since there are migratory birds using this area and there are also birds that frequent the bay which fly back and forth from the various ponds in the river bottom. At 70 feet tall the smokestacks are the highest things in the area. They are wide enough and if they have lights on them are likely to attract and confuse birds flying into and out of the habitat area to the south. Precautions need to be taken to avoid bird collisions. The plant will be required to use native plants, which will provide food and some habitat. The residential to the west have lush gardens attracting a large number of neighborhood birds. It is not true that birds will avoid the area.

Cumulative Impacts

There was no mapping error. The city should not initiate a process for excluding this proposed lay down area from the MSCP. It needs to be restored to habitat or mitigated at a 2:1 basis, as any other business would be required to do that wished to expand into the MSCP area. There is at least one local business, which wanted to expand and was required to do this. The city has an obligation to treat all businesses equally, not play favorites. Allowing this would be an unfortunate and discriminatory action on the part of the city of Chula Vista and a bad precedent.

Sincerely,

Theresa Acerro

President of Southwest Chula Vista Civic Association.