Latest news with #CaliforniaNativePlantSociety
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Settlement over major SLO County development cuts its affordable housing in half
After months of negotiations, the developers of the Dana Reserve housing project and the groups that sued to block its progress have reached a legal settlement that will trim nearly 230 units from the final total — with the affordable housing segment taking the largest hit. The number of units for the lowest income tier of potential residents will be cut by half. That was the biggest compromise developers made to resolve issues brought by two groups in lawsuit against the project. In May of 2024, the Nipomo Action Committee joined forces with the California Native Plant Society to sue Dana Reserve developers NKT Commercial for potential environmental impacts, citing concerns over the water supply, wildfire safety and protected tree species in the proposed project area. To address these concerns, the new project plan reduces the original 1,470 unit housing development by 229 units — about a sixth of the total. It also calls for over 1,500 new trees to be planted and includes perimeter changes while still retaining affordable housing options for school district employees and locals and other benefit programs to support the community, according to a joint news release from project managers and the Nipomo Action Committee. 'The settlement will create a revised Dana Reserve Specific Plan to better balance the needs for local housing with long-term habitat preservation on the Nipomo Mesa, while offering some accommodation for the impacts of a rapidly growing community,' the groups said in the release. Alison Martinez, director of the Nipomo Action Committee, said the six-month negotiation between the parties was 'rigorous.' 'We were never anti-Dana Reserve, but we wanted a better project that better served the community with fewer impacts,' Martinez told The Tribune. 'The settlement is not really a win or a lose … but it's something we can move forward with.' The modified Dana Reserve project will now return to San Luis Obispo County for review and re-approval. The Planning Commission will review the revised project likely by the end of August or early September before the decision comes before the Board of Supervisors later, SLO County planning and building director Trevor Keith told The Tribune. The board originally approved the previous version of the project in April 2024. If approved again, the project will be cleared for construction. 'We have worked closely with NAC and CNPS to modify the project in a way that is mindful of the community concerns and still provides a meaningful ladder of housing,' Nick Tompkins, managing partner of the Dana Reserve, said in the release. 'We appreciate our local representatives who make land use decisions. Our hope is that the commissioners and supervisors will support the settlement and recognize the time, effort and compromise it took to reach this agreement.' Last year, the Nipomo Action Committee and the California Native Plant Society filed a California Environmental Quality Act — or CEQA — lawsuit against the Dana Reserve project on the grounds that the project's environmental impact report was inadequate. Specifically, the groups took issue with the project's reliance on the Nipomo Community Services District's water supply, allegedly incomplete evacuation plan in the event of a fire and the project's disruption of the 3,000-tree oak forest that spans the proposed construction site. The CEQA lawsuit alleged that the environmental report lacked sufficient analysis of these issues and project alternatives. The additional discovery of a potentially new species of manzanita by the California Native Plant Society was also cited in the lawsuit. To address their concerns about the environmental impacts associated with population growth, the project scope was reduced by 16% to a total of 1,242 housing units, Dana Reserve spokesperson Jocelyn Brennan told The Tribune. The largest reduction in housing type came from the affordable housing units. In the original plan, 156 affordable units were spread out across two neighborhoods — Neighborhood 10A and 10B. The lawsuit identified neighborhood 10A as a sensitive biological area, so developers combined the two neighborhoods into one Neighborhood 10 with 78 affordable housing units, Brennan said. That is a reduction of half the original number. 'That's the only big change,' Brennan said. 'The middle and missing work force housing is staying the same.' The new affordable units will be built in partnership with People's Self-Help Housing and rent will be based on income, Brennan said. 'We are supportive of anything that leads to more housing actually getting built,' Michael Massey, the president of pro-housing group Generation Build, told The Tribune. He wrote an op-ed for The Tribune calling for an end to the lawsuit in March. Other available units will include market-price single-family units, 345 multi-family units — including 87 below-market units for moderate-income renters — 78 deed-restricted affordable housing units and other housing types to help address the region's housing shortage, Brennan said. There was a 38-unit reduction in the number of multi-family units in Neighborhoods 1 and 2, a five-unit reduction in the single-family homes in Neighborhood 9 and an eight-unit reduction in the single-family homes in Neighborhood 7 to keep a contiguous area of manzanita together, she said. The addition of 100 accessory dwelling units required by the Board of Supervisors was also removed, but people can still build them on their own if they choose, Brennan said. For the deed-restricted units, first priority will be given to Lucia Mar Unified School District employees, the release said. Other benefits that remain include a down payment assistance program, housing priority to locals and three on-site childcare options, as originally approved. Changes were also made to the perimeter to address some neighborhood and community concerns, including moving the set-back farther away from Hetrick Avenue to create a larger buffer area near Neighborhood 9 and reducing Neighborhood 3 perimeter homes to single story, Brennan said. Another change made as a term of the settlement was additional and significant offsite biological mitigation effort to help support long-term protection of sensitive manzanita habitats outside of the project boundaries, the news release said. The new project design includes protection of additional sensitive plant species and 195 more coast live oaks, bringing the number of total protected trees to 1,979. Notably, Dana Reserve also agreed to plant 1,554 new oaks and 814 other trees onsite to offset the environmental impact caused by construction. Dana Reserve will also donate significant funds for the public benefit of Nipomo as a part of the settlement agreement, which will be overseen by the Nipomo Action Committee. The release did not say how much money would be given. 'This settlement will provide significant financial resources to address future priorities of our community,' Martinez said in the release. 'I anticipate this settlement, as agreed, will now proceed through the county approval process.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Weekend warriors yank out invasive plants to save L.A. River
The Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve suffers from many of the ills that might be expected of a natural area located in the middle of the nation's second-largest city, including litter and even biohazards such as discarded needles from nearby drug use. But on Saturday morning a few hundred volunteers had another culprit in their sights: Rhamphospermum nigrum, a nonnative plant better known as black mustard that has flourished in the 225-acre reserve and the wider Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area. The plant, with its four-petaled yellow flowers in bloom, fills the basin's meadows and paints a bucolic picture that belies what it really is — an invasive weed that crowds out native plants such as sage and poppy that are crucial to the health of the basin, its natural wildlife and the Los Angeles River that runs through it. "It does look harmless, but it becomes a mono crop, and this is the main enemy to biodiversity," said Dan Mott, environmental educator with Friends of the Los Angeles River, which held the event with the California Native Plant Society and San Fernando Valley Audubon Society. "The native species can't be here, and all the birds and the insects that are supposed to be in this area, they don't want the mustard." The grasslands also capture less carbon and aren't as effective as native species in filtering runoff that enters the river, he said. The plant is native to North Africa, temperate regions of Europe and parts of Asia, and it is believed to have been introduced hundreds of years ago. The environmental group has been conducting habitat restoration in the reserve since 2019, with this weekend's event also a late celebration of Earth Day, after a prior event was rained out. On Saturday morning, the volunteers spent hours pulling up the black mustard, focusing on a patch of land with five large coast live oaks. The tree is native to California and resistant to fire, but not if surrounded by thick mustard weed undergrowth. Read more: 8 L.A. trees to love that aren't jacarandas "If there's a bunch of invasive species creating fuel underneath it, it's just kind of burning like a bonfire. It overwhelms the tree's ability to protect itself," said Mott, who figures that in five years crucial areas of the reserve should be largely cleared of the weed. Wes Vahradian, 18, who has been volunteering with Friends of the Los Angeles River for four years, was serving as a volunteer leader and tracking how much habitat was being restored using ArcGIS, a web-based mapping software on his phone. By 10:30 a.m., the app indicated that about a quarter of an acre had been restored. "We've done pretty solid here, and it's just a great way for us to kind of measure the impact we're making. We've done it all over the Sepulveda Basin," he said. Vahradian is entering his senior year at Campbell Hall, a private school in Studio City that requires students to engage in community service. Vahradian said he was attracted to the environmental group because he has long been fly-fishing in the river — "which is kind of crazy, but you can totally fish in it." He said that although the mustard weed does regrow, progress has been made over the years. "The whole premise is that the Sepulveda Basin is supposed to be a natural ecosystem, a place for birds when they're migrating to come and take a break." The black mustard that was pulled up was collected into 30-gallon paper garden bags that will be hauled away and buried in a landfill. Mott said the goal is to eventually compost the weed. Zia Shaked, 11, who said her favorite activity was reading, had spent the morning with her mother stuffing five bags full of the weeds that had been uprooted by her younger brother and cousin. "I learned that folding the weeds was really helpful before you put them in, because otherwise you get a mouthful of weeds in your face," she said. "I was just putting the weeds in the bag. I didn't even notice how much space that was cleared up and I looked up, like maybe a half an hour later." Read more: An L.A. River champion offers a vision for reimagining the waterway — and the city's future Shanna Shaked, the girl's mother, said this was the second time the Santa Monica family had been out restoring habitat, though it was the first time for her daughter. "It felt like a really good way to spend the morning, to be outside and doing something that felt helpful for nature," said Shaked, an adjunct professor at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. "It was a team effort." Mott said that the habitat restoration events typically draw about 150 to 200 participants but he has definitely noticed an uptick in attendance since the Jan. 7 fires that devastated Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other communities. "I think there was this powerless feeling when the wildfires were happening. You know, we can't go out there and fight fires ourselves, but this work is actually preventing the spread of wildfires. It's just something physical, tangible you can do to help the community and help with that problem," he said. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
25-05-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Weekend warriors yank out invasive plants to save L.A. River
The Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve suffers from many of the ills that might be expected of a natural area located in the middle of the nation's second-largest city, including litter and even biohazards such as discarded needles from nearby drug use. But on Saturday morning a few hundred volunteers had another culprit in their sights: Rhamphospermum nigrum, a nonnative plant better known as black mustard that has flourished in the 225-acre reserve and the wider Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area. The plant, with its four-petaled yellow flowers in bloom, fills the basin's meadows and paints a bucolic picture that belies what it really is — an invasive weed that crowds out native plants such as sage and poppy that are crucial to the health of the basin, its natural wildlife and the Los Angeles River that runs through it. 'It does look harmless, but it becomes a mono crop, and this is the main enemy to biodiversity,' said Dan Mott, environmental educator with Friends of the Los Angeles River, which held the event with the California Native Plant Society and San Fernando Valley Audubon Society. 'The native species can't be here, and all the birds and the insects that are supposed to be in this area, they don't want the mustard.' The grasslands also capture less carbon and aren't as effective as native species in filtering runoff that enters the river, he said. The plant is native to North Africa, temperate regions of Europe and parts of Asia, and it is believed to have been introduced hundreds of years ago. The environmental group has been conducting habitat restoration in the reserve since 2019, with this weekend's event also a late celebration of Earth Day, after a prior event was rained out. On Saturday morning, the volunteers spent hours pulling up the black mustard, focusing on a patch of land with five large coast live oaks. The tree is native to California and resistant to fire, but not if surrounded by thick mustard weed undergrowth. 'If there's a bunch of invasive species creating fuel underneath it, it's just kind of burning like a bonfire. It overwhelms the tree's ability to protect itself,' said Mott, who figures that in five years crucial areas of the reserve should be largely cleared of the weed. Wes Vahradian, 18, who has been volunteering with Friends of the Los Angeles River for four years, was serving as a volunteer leader and tracking how much habitat was being restored using ArcGIS, a web-based mapping software on his phone. By 10:30 a.m., the app indicated that about a quarter of an acre had been restored. 'We've done pretty solid here, and it's just a great way for us to kind of measure the impact we're making. We've done it all over the Sepulveda Basin,' he said. Vahradian is entering his senior year at Campbell Hall, a private school in Studio City that requires students to engage in community service. Vahradian said he was attracted to the environmental group because he has long been fly-fishing in the river — 'which is kind of crazy, but you can totally fish in it.' He said that although the mustard weed does regrow, progress has been made over the years. 'The whole premise is that the Sepulveda Basin is supposed to be a natural ecosystem, a place for birds when they're migrating to come and take a break.' The black mustard that was pulled up was collected into 30-gallon paper garden bags that will be hauled away and buried in a landfill. Mott said the goal is to eventually compost the weed. Zia Shaked, 11, who said her favorite activity was reading, had spent the morning with her mother stuffing five bags full of the weeds that had been uprooted by her younger brother and cousin. 'I learned that folding the weeds was really helpful before you put them in, because otherwise you get a mouthful of weeds in your face,' she said. 'I was just putting the weeds in the bag. I didn't even notice how much space that was cleared up and I looked up, like maybe a half an hour later.' Shanna Shaked, the girl's mother, said this was the second time the Santa Monica family had been out restoring habitat, though it was the first time for her daughter. 'It felt like a really good way to spend the morning, to be outside and doing something that felt helpful for nature,' said Shaked, an adjunct professor at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. 'It was a team effort.' Mott said that the habitat restoration events typically draw about 150 to 200 participants but he has definitely noticed an uptick in attendance since the Jan. 7 fires that devastated Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other communities. 'I think there was this powerless feeling when the wildfires were happening. You know, we can't go out there and fight fires ourselves, but this work is actually preventing the spread of wildfires. It's just something physical, tangible you can do to help the community and help with that problem,' he said.
Los Angeles Times
13-04-2025
- Science
- Los Angeles Times
Immerse yourself in native plants at the L.A. Times Plants booth at Festival of Books
Want to learn more about California native plants? Take a deep dive with experts from the Theodore Payne Foundation and California Native Plant Society April 26-27 at the L.A. Times Plants' Native Plant Booth at the Festival of Books, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 26 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 27. The booth will be brimming with displays of California native plants provided by the Theodore Payne Foundation, along with handouts in English and Spanish about how to create fire-resilient landscapes using native plants and how to avoid and/or replace invasive (and highly combustible) plants. On April 26 only, the California Native Plant Society will provide visitors with free customized lists of native plants based on their particular ZIP Code and landscape needs. The Theodore Payne Foundation will offer chances to take home stickers, tote bags, native poppy and chia seeds and 4-inch pots of native plants. L.A. Times Plants will be handing out free packets of native (and very easy to grow) sunflower seeds to current subscribers of the L.A. Times Plants Newsletter, as well as people who register on the spot to receive our free monthly email newsletter. We'll also have stickers and pins.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
There's lots of buzz about this annual Modesto celebration. See why, when
Uniquely is a Modesto Bee series that covers the moments, landmarks and personalities that define what makes living in the Central Valley so special. Get ready for a Modesto celebration that will hum with family attractions. It's the La Loma Native Plant Garden Pollinator Festival, our April highlight in a monthly feature that offers fresh ideas to parents for getting out and about with their children in the Modesto region. The fifth annual Pollinator Festival is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at 2000 Encina Ave. in Modesto, adjacent to the La Loma Native Plant Garden. All can flutter about the admission-free event. Among the day's highlights will be a musician-led Children's Pollinator Costume Parade through the garden, featuring little ones dressed as bees, butterflies, ladybugs, moths, bats and other garden helpers. How cute does that sound? 'No one will be left behind. It is a costume parade, but adults, children, costumes, no costumes. ... everyone is free to join the parade as we walk through the garden,' Mike Azevedo, membership chair for the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society, said in an email. Youngsters will gather at 10:30 a.m. near the music stage, right before the parade begins. Folks can flit through the festival's various activities, which include a beehive demonstration by Crump's Bees. There will be live music, as well as a drum circle at the garden mural with Drum Love. Also planned are educational children's activities, face painting by Girl Scout troops, a coloring table, birdhouses for sale, and food trucks. Blossom Hill Native Plant Nursery from Oakdale will offer pointers to anyone interested in adding native plants to a garden. The community event includes interactive activities for children and adults to learn the importance of native plants and how they support pollinators, according to Azevedo's email. The North San Joaquin Valley chapter of the California Native Plant Society helps put on the festival, along with the nonprofit La Loma Neighborhood Association. There will be booths featuring groups including the Modesto Garden Club, Stanislaus Master Gardeners, Turlock Community Gardens and more. Environmental organizations will be represented, among them the Stanislaus Audubon Society, Sierra Club Yokuts Group, the U.S. Forest Service and the California Native Plant Society. The La Loma Native Garden was created in 2017 by Rhonda Allen, who designed it and oversaw the planting of shrubs and trees and the spreading of seeds, with support from the La Loma neighborhood group, according to Azevedo. Allen, a UC Master Gardener, will be at the festival and will offer a tour of the garden. The La Loma Native Garden covers two acres with California and local native plants, Azevedo's email said, 'including flowers, shrubs and trees that draw in a wide range of pollinators, including hummingbirds, butterflies and moths, native bees and others.' For more on the festival, call La Loma Neighborhood Association President Katie Cosner at 209-996-9396.
