With a unanimous 5-0 vote, the board of supervisors brought a nearly two-decade effort to balance species conservation and economic development to a symbolic end Tuesday.
After the vote to approve the implementation agreement for the county’s Multi-Species Conservation Plan (MSCP), applause broke out in an audience made up of people on both sides of a once very divisive issue.
“I remember having metal detectors at public hearings,” recalled Carolyn Campbell, executive director of the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, which has been a long-standing backer of the plan.
The crowd erupted in laughter when she finished her brief presentation by saying, jokingly, “I did have a few recommended changes to the implementation agreement.”
The MSCP allowed the county to apply for a Section 10 permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which issued one in July. The permit allows holders to harass, harm or kill 44 species native to the region, in this case in exchange for protecting critical habitat elsewhere. As soon as January, local developers will be able to apply to the county to enjoy the protections of the permit. The supervisors have yet to approve what those fees will be.
The implementing agreement approved Tuesday “formalizes the responsibilities” of the county and Fish and Wildlife under the MSCP, according to documents provided to the supervisors. Those responsibilities and requirements include the county managing and monitoring so-called mitigation lands and prevent the service from “imposing new or additional species mitigation should there be future federal listing of species…”
Over the first decade of the plan, additional annual costs to the county could be about $11 million, according to an estimate from a county employee.
Steve Huffman, government affairs director for the Tucson Association of Realtors, described the MSCP Tuesday as a “win, win, win,” for the county, developers and conservationists.
“It really shows what happens when people sit down and really listen to each other,” he said of the long process to develop the plan and obtain the permit.
