measure will address wildlife movement, and does not preclude building designs or overcrossings that would provide for wildlife movement through developed areas. Furthermore, there are no special status terrestrial species known to occur within the Baylands that would trigger the need to require overcrossing of the existing Caltrain tracks. Locally occurring species navigate existing infrastructure at the site and the performance standards and mitigation measures included in the Draft EIR would result in overall improvement across the site in terms of wildlife movement compared to the existing condition.
[See page 5-185 for the original comment] As discussed under Impact 4.C-1 at pages 4.C-35 and 4.C-36, suitable habitat for special status plants occurs at the western edge of the Baylands Project Site on Icehouse Hill. No special status plants were found or expected to occur in other areas on the Baylands Project site, based on reconnaissance level surveys, database review, and the professional judgment of qualified biologists. The comment does not include any additional information regarding special status plants.
In addition to the rare plant habitat and suitable special status invertebrate habitat discussed in Section 4.C of the Draft EIR, species of concern with the potential to occur within the Baylands include fish species and raptors or migratory birds.
[See page 5-185 for the original comment] While encouragement of beekeeping operations to “support a healthy native bee population” may have positive environmental benefits, there are no impacts resulting from proposed Baylands development to support imposition of such a mitigation requirement pursuant to the provisions of CEQA.
[See page 5-185 for the original comment] This comment cites the statement in the Draft EIR that calls for “establishing a buffer zone of no less than 25 feet…” adjacent to construction areas, and raises the concern that dust and fine particulate matter are known to impact the health of butterflies, their larvae, and insects by sealing off avenues of respiration.
Mitigation Measure 4.C-1b is revised to read as follows:
Mitigation Measure 4.C-1b. Documented plant occurrences on Icehouse Hill shall be avoided by establishing a buffer zone of no less than 25 feet prior to Project trail construction, or other ground-disturbing activities having the potential to disturb or result in mortality of special-status plant populations. This buffer zone, whose specific width shall be determined based on site-specific analysis of proposed construction techniques and their potential for dust creation, shall be demarcated using flagging, orange fencing, or any other visual barrier between plant populations and the active disturbance footprint. Buffer distances may be increased if hydrology features would be altered as a result of train construction.