OCTA Releases RMPs

with No Comments

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) just released the last two Resource Management Plans (RMPs) for the Hayashi and Aliso Canyon Preserves. These Preserves, and others, were acquired through the Environmental Mitigation Program (EMP), which allocates funding for acquisition, restoration, and management of mitigation lands that off-sets the impacts from 13 freeway projects.

The RMPs are a requisite part of the Natural Community Conservation Plan and Habitat Conservation Plan and establish the stewardship expectations and requirements for the Preserves in perpetuity. They cover a range of topics from non-native species to recreation, fire management to habitat and species mapping and monitoring.

As part of its ongoing effort to maintain an inclusive, transparent and fair process, OCTA has opted to release the RMPs for comment–a step NOT required by the agency. We appreciate OCTA’s efforts to solicit feedback from the public, including conservation focused non-profits, and to incorporate substantive comments/solutions in the final versions of the plans.

As a reminder, the draft RMPs for the foothill preserves were released in November 2015. Those can be found on the FHBP website, under the Resource Management Plan heading. These two new RMPs are the last in the series to be drafted:

  • The nearly 300 acre Hayashi Preserve is adjacent to Chino Hills State Park in Brea.  The RMP for this Preserve can be downloaded from the FHBP website.
  • The 150-acre Aliso Canyon Preserve is adjacent to Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park in Laguna Beach. The RMP for this Preserve can be downloaded from the FHBP website.

Comments are due to OCTA in a little more than 90 days.  The deadline is 5 PM, Friday, December 1, 2017. Comments should be submitted to OCTA at: octa_rmp_comments@octa.net.

OCTA will also be hosting three public workshops on these RMPs. When details are available for each of these workshops, FHBP will send a notice out to the Green Vision and Measure M2 Coalitions.