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| Description |
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The Habitat Conservation program will receive 1% of the transportation sales tax funds, estimated at a total of $9.8 million over 25 years. |
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This program will provide funding for purchase of habitat related to mitigating the impact of transportation projects. The program is intended to provide more flexibility than is currently available by allowing habitat to be purchased and set aside before the approval of the environmental documents and/or above and beyond the strict environmental conservation requirements. Eligible uses of funds include contributions towards purchase of habitat, purchase of interest or credit in a "land conservation bank", and habitat conservation planning. |
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| Program Benefits |
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| Transportation projects may have unavoidable impacts to sensitive habitat. All projects in the plan will be carefully designed to preserve sensitive habitat whenever possible. Where impacts are unavoidable, habitat must be preserved elsewhere, to more than offset the project’s impacts. The goal of this program is to mitigate habitat impacted by transportation projects in a more comprehensive and cost-effective manner so as to benefit both taxpayers and the environment. |
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| Safeguards: Habitat Conservation Program |
| Expenditures from the Habitat Conservation Program will be consistent with state and federal requirements for the mitigation of impacts to sensitive habitat caused by transportation projects. Habitat conservation efforts will be coordinated with locally active conservation groups such as the Big Sur Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy, and the Elkhorn Slough Foundation to maximize the benefits the Program. |
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