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The Bickford Ranch project is a highly controversial, large-scale, mixed-use planned development located on nearly 2,000 acres of oak woodlands and pasture land between the communities of Lincoln and Penryn in Placer County. Project developers spent years planning the project (which will include approximately 1,900 homes, a private golf course, a commercial center, and a school) and will set aside approximately one-third of the property in a permanent conservation easement to be managed by the Wildlife Heritage Foundation.
North Fork provided a wide variety of consulting services to the applicants in during and after the planning stages of the project. North Fork biologists-
assessed the biological impacts of the proposed project;
- analyzed the constraints and opportunities presented by the property and developed mitigation measures to reduce impacts to less-than-significant levels;
- provided guidance and technical advice to the applicant's land planners;
- provided extensive wetlands consulting services including advice on wetlands avoidance and assistance with the development of a preserve component to the land plan;
- supplemented the applicant's biological resource assessment;
- prepared all wetland permit applications for submittal to responsible agencies including 404, 401 and 1602 applications;
- assisted in development of the conceptual design of 8.5 acres of wetlands to be constructed as mitigation for filling 2.7 acres; monitored the constructed wetlands on the project site and provided annual report of monitoring;
- mapped elderberries and determined the project's impacts on them, and helped design the conservation plan for elderberries;
- acted as the liaison between the applicant, Placer County, and the federal and state agencies participating in review of the project, including significant assistance with the successful Section 7 negotiations around Valley elderberry longhorn beetle and fairy shrimp issues.
The Placer County Board of Supervisors approved the project first in 2001, and again in 2004 following an unfavorable court ruling on technicalities of the administrative record. The project was delayed again by lawsuits over impacts to oak trees, which was finally settled in late 2005, when the applicant agreed to pay more than $6 million to preserve local oak woodlands. Construction of the project is currently underway, and the constructed wetlands are currently meeting all performance standards. |
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