All right, it is three o'clock.

We're gonna go ahead and call the SCPHCP coordinating committee meeting to order.

If we can go ahead and start off with a roll call vote, please.

Committee member Nino.

Committee member Garcia.

Committee member Jordan.

Here.

Committee member McGlamory.

I'm here.

Committee member Simper.

Here.

Chair Sparrow.

Here.

Aquor mis present.

Alright, we're going to move on to our public comments.

We have a number of folks.

It looks like everyone is signed up to speak on agenda item two.

Is that correct?

Correct.

All right.

So we have 11 folks signed up to speak, so we'll do the full three minutes per person if you can call those in order.

Catherine Fess, followed by Lisa Pack.

Yield your time.

Okay, thank you.

We have her on the list signed up.

You repeat your name?

Catherine Wessel.

All right, thank you.

Hello, hello.

Okay, good.

Members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Catherine Feist, and I am a member of the Scenic Loop Holotus Creek Alliance.

I want to address a pattern that we are seeing across the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, a pattern that is directly relevant to the goals of the SEP HCP.

It is the use of staged or incremental land clearing as a development tactic and its effect on the golden cheek warbler and other sensitive species.

We often talk about habitat loss as if it happens all at once.

A bulldozer arrives, a woodland disappears, and the impact is clear.

But in reality, the most consequential damage is often happens before the first permit is issued and long before a project is ready to build.

Developers sometimes clear land in phases not to begin construction, but to fragment the habitat in a way that reduces the likelihood that endangered species will be detected later.

This is not speculation, the science is unambiguous.

Golden cheek warblers depend on continuous mature ash juniper oak woodlands.

When that canopy is broken into pieces, even if some trees remain, the habitat becomes less suitable.

Fragmentation increases edge effects, reduces nesting success, and pushes birds out of areas they previously occupied.

In other words, you don't have to eliminate the habitat to eliminate the species.

You only have to break it apart.

And that is exactly what staged clearing accomplishes.

By clearing one section of a property this year, another section the next, and another the year after, a developer can steadily degrade the ecological value of the entire tract.

By the time a biological surveys survey is conducted, the warblers are gone, not because the habitat was never there, but because it was chipped away in increments too small to trigger a regulatory review.

This practice has real consequences for our region.

It undermines the intent of the Endangered Species Act, it undermines the integrity of the SEPHCP, and it undermines public trust in the development process.

Most importantly, it undermines the long-term health of the Edwards Aquifer.

Because the same mature woodlands that support the warbler also stabilize soils, slow runoff, and protect water quality.

Fragmentation is not just a wildlife issue, it is a water protection issue.

I want to be clear, this is not about stopping development.

It is about stopping the quiet erosion of the safeguards that allow development and conservation to coexist.

When clearing is used strategically to avoid environmental responsibility, the public loses twice.

We lose habitat and we lose the transparency needed to make informed decisions.

I urge the committee to recognize stage clearing and fragmentation for what they are.

A loophole that weakens the very protections this plan was designed to uphold.

And I ask you to consider policy tools, whether through timing restrictions, pre-clearing surveys, or coordination with local governments that ensure habitat is evaluated before it is degraded, not after.

Thank you for the time and for your stewardship of the Edwards Aquifer and the species that depend on it.

Next up to speak is Lisa Puck, followed by Emery Bloom.

Good afternoon, committee and members.

My name is Lisa Muries Pack.

I live at 15760 Cine Cloop Road in Holotus, Texas.

I am the Secretary of the Cine Cloop Holotus Creek Alliance, but I'm also the landowner who has a conservation easement with DEAPP.

And what I'm going to talk about is the impact on conservation in general.

One of the key things in her report, Jennifer Blair, for permit TE 48571B.

She states that there were no golden cheek warblers.

However, her survey was done, the count was done when the warblers were not here in season.

You can't count what's not here.

There were also listed no karst features, even though on other maps and other documentation we know there are cars features, there were caves, and in the surrounding area, it's riddled with karst.

So her report is inaccurate.

And why aren't neighbors of the abetting properties that are requesting permits not notified?

Registered neighborhoods are not notified, and the permitting agendas go unread by us when we would be interested in some of these issues that are coming up.

To that point, in your annual report on item seven, you list that there are ongoing education and community involvement meetings and planning.

We don't see that.

We don't see the meetings, we don't hear about them, we don't know that you're having them, and we would desperately like to be included, at least given the opportunity to bring some of our concerns before you.

Thank you.

Next up to speak is Emory Bloom, followed by Susan Finch.

Good afternoon.

My name is Emory Bloom.

I serve as the president of Cineclear Pilotus Creek Alliance, a registered neighborhood alliance in San Antonio.

Our organization was founded with a similar, with a singular vital mission to preserve the rural and park-like character of the Scenicloop Lotus Creek Corridor, stretching from Highway 16 to Babcock Road.

I stand before you today to formally state our alliance's unwavering opposition to any public assistance afforded to this development of Wahueta Ranch.

Specifically, we oppose any incidental taking of endangered species habitats by these landowners and developers.

If Lenar Holmes of Texas intends to develop this land, they must be held to a standard that does not degrade the sanctity of this region or the quality of life of its neighbors.

It is imperative to remember that because of the Southern Edwards Plateau Habitat Conservation Plan is a federal program.

Every piece of information submitted is subjected to federal law.

This includes the Endangered Species Act, the Federal False Statements Act, and Federal fraud and false claims statutes.

These laws are not suggestions, they apply strictly to material uh omissions, inaccurate biological or geological reporting, incorrect mitigation calculations, and any failure to disclose known environmental features.

Our alliance has submitted a comprehensive written response identifying ten categories of material inconsistencies and omissions in this mitigation determination.

Based on these findings, scenically, Politus Creek Alliance respectfully requests a formal delay in any decision making until the following public concerns are fully addressed.

A formal review of the mitigation determination for Guajalote Ranch, a written response to each of our ten categories of questions, a stakeholders' meeting as required by the SCP HCP's own founding framework, a formal notification to the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service regarding any previously undisclosed discrepancies, notification of the TCQ Edwards Aquifer Protection Program regarding Bear County's waiver of best management practices, a complete correction of all mathematical and calculation errors, verified documentation regarding the dates and protocols of golden cheek warbler observations, full disclosure of all caves and cars features on the property, and finally the provisions of all geophysical reports, die trace tests, and geotechnical reports relied on in this determination.

We urge this coordinating committee to deny the Guajalote Ranch SCP-HCP application.

Lenar Holmes and Pape Dawson should not be permitted to inflict further harm upon our neighborhood or the residents I represent.

Our community must not be complicit in a project that fails to meet the legal and environmental standards our region deserves.

Next is Susan Finch, followed by Lynette Munson.

I'm losing my time.

Okay.

For a total of nine minutes.

All right.

Certainly.

Good afternoon, and thank you for this time.

My name is Lynette Munson, and I live on Sam's Ranch.

Part of that ranch has been in our family for 140 years.

The ranch has host the headwaters of the Cinecloop Creek, the Holotus Creek.

That ranch was used to raise crop, run cattle, and now it's under wildlife management.

And unfortunately, Sam's Ranch also borders and shares a fence with Wahota.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

Sure thing.

Is that better?

Okay.

As I've learned more about your program over the past year, I become a little disheartened.

I believe this committee was created with a positive objective, but it no longer seems to be fitting that mission to balance rapid regional growth with environmental protection, particularly for species in the hill country ecosystem.

I want to touch a little bit on what Lisa shared about the survey or the study that was done.

Why was that survey, or why did no one look at the timing of that survey?

No one brought into question that that survey was done when the birds had already left.

I see that as something that we need y'all to look to.

Something that, as being on this committee, I hope that you would make sure that those boxes are checks and balanced.

But no one on the board apparently identified it, spoke to it.

Is it just we take the words of people filling out applications nowadays?

Do we make sure that they just check the boxes just to make sure the boxes are checked?

Unfortunately, through all of this issue that we've had with the Wahalote Ranch, we've kind of seen a pattern start to develop.

We see MDPs were approved where it listed incorrect emergency exits.

We've also seen roadway designations incorrect on applications.

So the transparency and our confidence is a little bit shaken right now.

I also want to share with you because I have a perfect view of the Wajalote from my backyard.

Shortly after the clearing started with the first round, the amount of bats that we saw at dusk was tenfold of any other time that I've ever seen.

I grew up out there and I've lived in my particular house for over 30 years.

I stand in that backyard almost daily, and I can tell you I've never seen the amount of bats fly as I saw those first couple of weeks when the clearing started.

I don't think anybody on this committee or anybody else can convince me that the clearing over there did not destroy their habitat because I've never seen them like that.

Has anyone gone out to look at what the swish of your approvals have done out there?

To go on to actually see what's happening?

My guess is probably not.

Why wouldn't someone go out there?

Why wouldn't want someone to go see what was approved?

You're gonna probably tell me, well, because we don't have to, but just because you don't have to doesn't make it not the right thing to do.

Someone should really go look to see what's going on out there.

And if I had to guess, because again, we have clear views of everything that's going on, we see it, we hear it daily.

We hear it all weekend long sometimes.

If I had to guess, they're not fully in compliance.

But who's looking?

Who's gonna tell?

There certainly aren't.

This is an opportunity that we're hoping that the SEPHCP will do the right thing.

It's time for that change.

I also want to share this picture with you.

We know the warblers are there.

We see them.

This picture was taken at the end of March.

So help me understand.

This is from my cousin's kitchen.

She lives on the same ranch that I do.

Her house, in fact, is the closest to the creek and shares a fence line with the Wahalote.

So can anyone on this board or this committee explain to me or us how these birds are here on our property on Sam's ranch and not on Wajalote?

Because I think that's what the study said that the warblers were not there.

I've never known a bird to date that can tell what side of the fence it's supposed to be on.

If they're on my side of the fence, you can bet they're on the other side of the fence.

Well, I think this committee is made up of a lot of county and city entities.

Sometimes I have to wonder if that's a little lopsided.

Do you have the lens to look outside of what your day jobs are?

I am very familiar with work bias, and I'm sure y'all all are.

We carry it with us no matter where we go and what we do.

But there's a time when you are filling a different position, you have to make sure that your biases are put in check.

So we're asking here to make sure that what's being implemented, you don't carry that bias from your day jobs over.

This is very different in nature.

We want you to pocket those bias.

Make sure that the big corporations that y'all help to bring in the city to grow the city and the county don't intentionally impact our ecosystem.

I will say it's a little hard for me and my family to understand how we can say, well, we're taking money to destroy one property to purchase another and protect it.

Of all properties that needed to be protected, it was this one.

It has karst environments.

I clearly saw that by the bat activity I saw.

I know we've destroyed caves over there and everything else.

I know we have warblers.

We've seen them.

The picture proves it.

But the survey says there's no cars environment.

So where are those bats coming from?

I know where they're coming from.

There's caves.

I have caves on my property.

If I have a bird on my side of the fence, again, there's birds on that other side of the fence.

So we're asking for that transparency.

We really want to partner with y'all to make sure that the right things are done to protect the environmentally sensitive areas that need to be protected, and not just take money to destroy one to protect something else.

My family's concern in particular comes to the fact that I tried to read the map.

Like what was what y'all were planning to do, what this phase was about.

And I have no clear understanding as to what it means when it comes to my property line.

I see it bleed over into our property and it talks about something about a um like a border or a boundary.

But when I look at the map, some of that property appears to be ours.

So if there's no clear understanding of exactly what's being approved and whose property is what, and why weren't we consulted?

We share a property line with them.

This is going to absolutely impact our land and everything else.

And I'm not sure what's being presented to you is true and accurate anymore.

We've seen it too many times with what y'all are saying, which was presented to you, is not true.

So I don't know if we have a level of confidence now that what that map says is true and correct.

Enough destruction has been done on a place that should have been protected.

We ask that you take the responsible action to ensure that growth is done in a non-harmful way.

We ask that you please consider the denial of this application.

Thank you.

Next is Austin Browning, followed by Michael Schlick.

Good afternoon.

Members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to speak today today.

My name is Austin Browning.

I'm the treasurer of the Scenicaloo Creek Alliance.

My concern today is simple.

The 300-foot golden sheet wobbler buffer, which the plan used to calculate indirect impacts crosses parcel properties and include habitat that the applicant does not own.

Now I want to be clear that that may be a policy, but that does not change federal laws.

Under the Endangered Species Act, it is illegal to take an endangered species directly or indirectly.

Anywhere, including on land that the developer does not control, nor is light, fragmentation, construction disturbance, the degrade habitat on the neighbor's property, still constitute a federal take.

Property lines do not shield the actor.

So we have a contradiction.

But the developer is not legally authorized to cause those impacts across property lines.

This creates three serious problems.

First, the neighbors who habitat is included in the impact zone have had no notice, no opportunity to participate, even though their lands are being counted as impacted by this project.

This is a due process issue.

Second, the mitigation calculation include 97, 95.74 acres of indirect golden cheek wobbler area of this project.

This normally is only possible because the buffer extends onto adjacent properties.

The applicant is being credited with impact habitat that they do not own, and the public is being asked to accept mitigation for their impact occurring off-site.

Third, this project degrades the golden cheek wobbler habitat on neighboring lands, and the map suggests it will.

This is not a technicality.

It goes to the heart of the compliance.

Again, we're not about stopping development.

It's about ensuring that development compliance and federal laws respect property boundaries and protect the species that we were here to safeguard.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir.

Up next is Michael Schlick, followed by Ricky.

Distinguished members of the coordinating committee, my name is Michael William Schick, and Oahute Ranch touches my backyard.

With all due respect, you had just one job.

That job is clearly articulated in your own purpose statement, quote, to balance and the operative word is balance.

Rapid regional growth with environmental protection, particularly for species in the hill country ecosystems, end quote.

But by virtue of your staff approving a request by Lenar Holmes to destroy the precious and irreplaceable ecosystems on the Wahoote ranch for yet a second time in three months, your organization has demonstrated a gross imbalance of priorities that overwhelmingly benefit a corporation to the detriment of not only the plant and animal life, but ultimately human life.

Approving Lenar's request constitutes the fraudulent act of tipping the skills.

Tipping the skills is what merchants and ancient marketplaces did to cheat customers.

They put a lightweight on one side and a heavy weight on the other.

Sadly, this body unjustly favored Lenar over federally protected and endangered species and the ecosystem.

And unbelievable as it seems, you're on the verge of doing it again.

This shameful mission failure is yet further evidence of the need for additional state and federal government oversight of the SCP HCP, a system of checks and balances that will hold this organization accountable and be subject to corrective measures.

If you approve Lenar's request, it will be one more example of what a government blunder looks like.

And please pay attention to how Cambridge Dictionary defines blunder.

It is to make a serious or stupid mistake, usually because of not taking care or not thinking.

Ladies and gentlemen, please don't make another serious mistake.

Don't show taxpayers that you aren't thinking clearly.

Prove to the world that you really do care.

I urge this committee to reject the short-sighted recommendation of staff to approve Lenar's request, and I implore you to fulfill your reason for being in all future considerations.

The health, wellness, and safety of millions of citizens depend on you doing your job right.

Thank you.

Next is Ricky, followed by Phil Manna.

Thank you, gentlemen, and thank you very much for letting me uh speak.

I uh I'm gonna read something that I wrote, and it's it's uh just something about our conscience.

And I do know that one of the uh people that worked at Ledar, is a good friend of mine, and she's brilliant.

She's absolutely brilliant.

She helped me actually put together a proposal to go to a bank years and years ago, like twenty-eight years ago, to build my house, and I was the builder.

My late brother Lucky Block was an architect, but he died before he could help me.

I'm gonna read this.

I'm a writer, I'm an airline pilot, and uh I hope this expresses something, but I don't think somebody should come to the outside.

We have I think the biggest issue is about our water.

It is so plain to see from where I said the Edwards Aquifer.

I have shells that from animals that live millions of years ago.

They're uh, I don't know, I'm not a geologist, but they're just they look like they were, except they're solid.

Okay, here goes.

This is called uh white tip of the wooden cane.

Said the blind man to the deaf man, tit it tap, tit it tap.

Can you listen for what I can't see?

See the white tip of the wooden cane?

Let me know, let me see, let me hear all of life that exists before me.

Everything and nothing, can this be the big deal?

Not a win-win to lose, not a lose lose to fill.

In my brain, short of all I see, the white tip of the wooden cane sees tapping, tapping to see the world for me.

Tapping, tapping, the hand holding the cane to see.

I see by what I feel, what's real, what's not real for me.

One side of me, one side of you.

Walking, walking in the light of day, the cane to see taps two times for two.

Walking in the dark with the shadow of two, inside of me, inside of you.

Tapping, tapping in the darkness in my brain for two.

All that is gone, leaves all that is left.

Tapping, tapping, tit it echoes the cane.

As it sees in the dark, no time can I see what's left.

Tapping, tapping, the cane in the day, walking the steps, walking in the blind to find my way.

Tapping one time for one, one time at a time, tapping for two, two taps for two in the sea of the blind.

The mind can blind the eye what it sees.

I see the sun, icarus fall, blinded crashing into the sea.

Whispered someone seeing beyond me.

Alive, alive, the rings of life grow.

The rings of life grow like inside the tree.

The white tip of the cane sees no rings.

Tapping, tapping to see life for me.

The tip of the cane finds no rings to see.

Tapping to see the rings of life in the tree.

Everything and nothing, can this be all I see?

Tapping, tapping, tapping, three taps for the moment of truth.

I see the blind man to the deaf man.

I see, said the blind man to the deaf man.

No tapping is needed to see blinded where the truth is moved.

Tapping tapping, the truth is what matters to keep in sight.

Keep tit tapping day and night.

Tip or no tip, some are so blind.

Is he who won't see the rings in the dark or the light?

The white tip of the cane looks for the truth of light.

We do need to move on to the next speaker.

That was your three minutes.

Thank you very much for listening.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Next to speak is Phil Manna.

Hello, my name is Philip Manna.

I'm president of Alma Farmstead's Babcock Road Neighborhood Association in San Antonio.

And I've been a resident of San Antonio for 52 years.

Lenar has significant controversies in Florida regarding development of large-scale residential communities with specific projects drawing intense criticism from environmental impact and extensive land clearing, including multiple developments in multiple counties, which includes areas that are protected marshlands where Lenar clears trees and habitat.

Residents in various communities have accused the developers destroying sensitive ecosystems and habitats for local wildlife, such as gopher tortoises.

With their scorched earth success there, Lenar said, Hold my beer.

Let's go see what we can do in Texas, because they even have a little bit more friendly developer attitudes.

So Lenar chose an area surrounded by the southernmost Edwards plateau important bird area, SEP IBA in Texas, which is a combined 9,000 acre ecological hotspot essential to the survival of the endangered species, golden cheeked warpler, which is most notably the only bird species that breeds exclusively in Texas.

Take that for thought for a second here.

The only bird species.

Only in Texas.

This area is characterized by ash juniper oak woodlands along the balcony's escarpment, hosting high biodiversity.

The habitat needs for the warbler requires 70% canopy coverage and at least 60 acres of contiguous connected land.

And so who determines how many acres in the development qualifies as a golden cheek warbler habitat.

So the developer and the contractor, because that kind of looks like what it happened.

It strikes me odd that an area in the center of this important IBA area, so the important bird area has so little acreage preserved.

There are good developers and bad and good developments.

This is neither.

Lenar is proving that with this development, they are neither a good neighbor for San Antonio or Bear County.

Um I'll probably won't be able to stay for the whole discussion.

Uh after this, uh, but I'm a 27-year volunteer at Sol Ross Middle School and a mentor of students who belong to the kindness club.

As Lenar has shown little regard to the San Antonio community, the club will not be extending an invite to Lenar as a member.

Thank you.

That's the end of public comment.

Alright, before we move on with our agenda items, I want to give an opportunity to the board members to ask any questions of the public comment if there were any.

To my left, to my right?

Okay, hearing none.

Did you have some?

I don't have any questions, but I do have comments.

Okay.

Let's um let's save comments and deliberation for the actual agenda item.

Um so we're gonna go ahead and we'll close the public comment portion and move on to agenda item number one.

Good afternoon.

Carly Bosa, your senior planner with the development services department.

Item number one is discussion and possible action on SCP-HCP application for WTG Bear Transmission.

Application number five for the year 2026, is located between Wiseman Boulevard and State Highway 151 in San Antonio, Texas.

The property is located within Council District 6.

The owner is WTG Bear Transmission, and the consultant is W SWCA environmental consultants.

The property is approximately 8.83 acres.

WTG Bear Transmission wishes to enroll in the SCP HCP to mitigate impacts to the SCP HCP covered species from development activities.

The project area includes zero acres of golden cheek warbler GCW habitat within the project area and zero acres of GCW habitat within 300 feet of the project area.

The project area will require a total of zero GCW conservation credits.

The project area is located over Cartzone 1.

A total of 8.83 acres occurs within Carsone 1.

The project area is not located within any critical habitat units, nor is it within 750 feet of an occupied feature.

Participation in the SCP HCP for this application will require the following: a Carsone 1 and 2 participation fee of $8,830 and a plan administration fee of $883.

The applicant has paid the $2,500 application fee.

The applicant will be required to pay the full mitigation fee of $9,713 prior to completing enrollment in the plan.

Staff recommends approval, and our biologist is here to answer any questions.

Thank you.

All right, thank you very much.

To my right?

Okay.

Hearing none, can I get a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve.

Alright, we have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

We'll give it to Commissioner Semper.

Can we do a roll call vote, please?

Committee member McLammery.

Aye.

Committee member Simper?

Aye.

Committee member Jordan.

Aye.

Chair Sparrow.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Okay.

Can we move on to agenda item number two?

Good afternoon.

Valerie Rodriguez, senior planner with the policy administration team.

Item number two is discussion and possible action on SCP-HCP for Lenar Homes of Texas Incorporated.

This project is located off Scenic Loop Road and outside of City of the City of San Antonio within Western Barr County.

The owner is Lenar Homes of Texas, and the consultant is Pape Dossing Pape Dawson Consulting Engineers, and the anchorage is for 15.994 acres.

Lenar Homes of Texas Inc.

wishes to enroll in the SCP HCP to impact the to mitigate impacts to the SCP HCP covered species from development activities.

The project area includes 13.98 acres of golden chic warbler habitat within the project area and 95.74 acres of GCW GCW habitat within 300 feet of the project area.

The project area will require a total of 69 GCW conservation credits.

And the project area is located within CARS Zone 3A and 4B.

A total of 4.78 acres occurs within CARS Zone 3A and a total of 11.21 acres occurs within CARS Zone 4B.

The project area is not located within any critical habitat units, nor is it within 750 feet of an occupied feature.

Participation in the SCP HCP for this application will require the following a GCW conservation credit fee of 552,000 dollars, the Carsone 3 and 4 participation fee for 4,780, and a plan administration fee of $55,678.

Fiscal and I'm sorry, the applicant has paid the two uh $2,500 application fee, and the applicant will be required to pay the full mitigation fee of $612,458 prior to completing enrollment in the plan.

Staff does recommend approval and our biologists and the applicant are here to answer any questions.

Staff did receive 19 emails in opposition of this item, which was emailed to the board this morning.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um I want to start uh we'll start with commissioner questions to my left.

Like I said, I don't have questions, but I have comments.

So one of the things that um I have questions as I have never seen a master plan for this particular development.

Um it raises serious questions with me.

Um not only the habitat, the environment, but also the impervious cover.

That's the Leon uh Leon Creek watershed.

My day job, someone spoke about bias, my day job is I'm the director for parks and recreation for Barra County.

I don't think we have enough open green space and we deal with flooding on a regular basis.

Um I've seen how the developments take away from everything and increase the level of water, and also too, if we take away the environment, we we'd have less and less green space.

Everything suffers, okay.

And I think uh instead of paying for some of these things, in my personal opinion, I would like to see a majority parkland, continuous parkland.

I think that would be.

But let me let me point out I'm also I'm very pro-business, but I'm prior, I'm very pro-freedom, but I'm also more so pro-common sense.

So um I love the outdoors.

I'm more of a conservationist than probably a lot of y'all in this room.

I have access to 10,000 acres, and um I the reason I do that is because the landowner's been in a it's been a generationally owned ranch is because I respect the property and I help bring back the environment.

And it's more so than just cutting things down, but we can conserve things, but we conserve them too much.

We conserve them to the point where the trees don't get to grow.

They don't we we we let things go.

There's grasses that do not come back.

We don't get the grass to come back without the grass and the bugs and all that other good stuff.

The golden cheek warble will have no place to go either.

Okay.

They will find places if we we need to make smarter decisions about it.

I agree.

So um, and in clear conscience, I cannot vote for approval on this particular amendment.

Yeah, if I can keep this thing on, you all hear me.

We can okay.

Okay.

Some I mission had anybody seen it.

Actually, I have flown over it.

I have aerials that I took of it, and yeah, it's uh it's disconcerting to say the least.

Uh they stripped it.

They just flat stripped it.

Um I have not seen any master plan on this either.

Uh I know that you know the people that have to review this stuff are bound by certain rules and regulations, and they are, you know, but in this case, um I need to see more before I can go forward with anything.

Uh I've heard some allegations also.

I've heard some allegations also about improper surveys and such as that.

I would like to delve into that a little further.

And know that what I'm being presented is actually what's there.

I generally have a you know, generally have a tendency to believe the people that that uh are hired to do these things, but um, if somebody's got you know, if I'm if I got something legitimate that is contrary, I want to know that.

So I think from my standpoint, I would just as soon table the motion until we could get more.

Is that a motion?

That's a motion motion for a continuance for two weeks, four weeks.

What do you what do you feel?

Let's table it for the next four weeks, please.

Uh for a chance to get more information and address these concerns.

Is there a second on that motion?

I'll second that.

All right.

Prior to a vote on that one, I have a couple questions uh for the biologist, and I do want to give the applicant the time to address some of these comments.

So Jenny, could you come to the podium?

Um I I think the coming month will give you know the full committee an opportunity to dig a little deeper into this, but a couple questions uh from the testimony here today and also from the written comments that we received suggesting that the SCP would benefit from federal oversight.

Can you describe for the committee and for those in the room what process the SCP had to go through to get approved to begin with?

All right, sorry.

My name is Jennifer Blair.

Um I'm with Blair Wildlife Consulting and I work as the contractor for the CEPHCP and for the city of San Antonio and Bear County.

Um to answer your question, uh Chair Sparrow.

The CEPHCP went through a 10-year planning process to get approval for this locally administered endangered species act compliance program.

So the SEP HCP provides applicants the opportunity to mitigate for their impacts to endangered species from their projects as a result of participation in the program.

And when participation is completed, they receive the incidental take authorization from Fish and Wildlife Service to remove and or impact those habitats.

Okay, and is the SCP HCP currently in compliance with those standards?

Yes, sir.

And how do we demonstrate that to the federal government?

So we prepare an annual report each year.

Um we uh independently review each application that's submitted.

Um, all of the application process and documents that are prepared and submitted for an uh an application has to be done by a federally permitted fish and wildlife um a biologist that is federally permitted by fish and wildlife service.

So these are experts preparing the information, experts reviewing the information and making the determinations for mitigation obligations, and then all of that is provided to Fish and Wildlife Service on an annual basis, and we also coordinate with with the service um quite frequently on projects if there are any potential questions that come up once we receive the application.

Okay, um, couple last questions and we'll take our vote.

Um, there were some statements made that there was a survey conducted during a time of year that species would not be on the property, and somehow that was used to justify this enrollment.

Do you can you speak to who sets the I'm not sure what that was referring to, but so the CEPHCP process does not require a presence absence survey to be submitted for a project to enroll in the HCP, and that is because the program is set up and the mitigation is determined for uh on a basis of looking at habitat by proxy.

So if the habitat meets the requirements for the species, then the applicant has to mitigate for those impacts.

If they choose to provide us additional information, such as a presence absence survey, that information will be taken into consideration, but it has no ultimately it has no bearing on the mitigation determination for for this project here, and they did provide.

I will say that this applicant did provide not only their habitat determination, which is required, but they did provide us multi-years of of um GCW surveys identifying that this the species did occur on the property.

Okay, and then my last question is maybe a little a bit of a combo question, but there was some testimony about inaccuracies and the mitigation determination, the maps that were provided, etc.

Um, have you reviewed the information in the mitigation determination and verified the accuracy of those documents?

Yes, I have.

Okay, thank you.

Um is the applicant present that would like to respond to any of these today or not?

Saying none.

Okay, we have a motion, we have a second.

Can we do a roll call vote?

A yes vote would be to support the continuance for four weeks.

Committee member Jordan.

Yes, committee member simper?

Yes, committee member McGlamory, yes, Chair Sparrow.

Yes, motion passes for a four-week continuance.

Thank you.

Can we move on to agenda item number three?

Good afternoon, Nicole Salinas, interim administrator for development services.

Item number three is discussion and possible action on the 2024 2025 SEPHCP annual report.

Annual reports will cover the period of October 1st through September 30th to coincide with the Bear County and City of San Antonio fiscal years.

Annual reports shall include a summary of the participation in the SCP HCP, a summary of the lands and habitats included in the SCP HCP preserve system, a copy of the conservation ledger documenting preservation credits, a summary of the financial status of the SCP HCP, a summary of management activities conducted, the result and the results of the biological monitoring activities, a summary of the status of community education and outreach outreach programs, recommended modifications to preserve management plans, a summary of any compliance related issues or actions involving enrolled properties.

This annual report will be submitted to the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Services on or before July 1st of 2026.

During the 2024 2025 period, we have enrolled 11 properties.

Staff recommends approval of the 2024-25 SEP HCP annual report.

And if you have any questions.

Thank you very much.

Any questions to my left?

To my right.

All right.

Take a motion to accept the annual report.

Make a motion to accept the report.

And a second.

I'll second.

All right.

We have a motion and a second roll call vote, please.

Committee member McLamery.

Aye.

Committee member Jordan.

Aye.

Committee member simper?

Aye.

Chair Spirol.

Yes.

Motion passes for approval.

All right.

And then the last item is approval of our minutes.

Did anyone have any corrections to the minutes from the April 28th meeting?

Seeing none, can I get a motion?

Motion to approve is written.

And a second.

I'll second it.

And we'll do a voice vote.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

The time is 3 50, and that concludes today's meeting.

Thank you, everyone.