The media reported on a transportation forum in which EHL served as a panelist and quoted EHL about a controversial development project in San Diego.



EHL and other conservation groups settled litigation with the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) to protect vital biological and recreational resources, such as San Onofre State Beach, from toll road construction while not opposing facilities outside these areas. At a forum on alternatives conducted by the TCA and covered by the Orange County Register (“Opposition to toll roads dominates dialog at TCA forum,” June 6, 2017), EHL had the opportunity to explain the agreement to residents very concerned over some of the potential routes.

Dan Silver, CEO of the Endangered Habitats League and a forum panelist, said that the lawsuit settlement preserves some of the area’s most valued habitat and recreational resources.

“Our campaign was never about stopping all transportation improvements, nor was it about stopping a toll road per se,” Silver said. “It was always about protecting certain things. None of us are going to wake up 10 years from now one morning and find that the TCA is making another run at things.”

“Silver urged the forum crowd to remain engaged in the process and work toward transportation solutions.”

The Voice of San Diego reported on the highly irregular incorporation of a developer’s proposed project into a draft conservation plan for the North County prior to either state and federal wildlife agency concurrence or Board of Supervisor’s approval (“Environmentalists Say Conservation Plan Is Being Used to Give One Development a Leg Up,” June 9, 2017). At issue is Newland Sierra, a 2,135-unit development proposed in wildlife habitat near Twin Oaks.

“By putting it into the draft plan, it stacks the deck in favor of the developer, without a public interest reason for doing so,” said Dan Silver, the head of the Endangered Habitats League ... Silver is also on the steering committee that is working to shape
the final conservation plan for North County.

Silver believes Newland and the county, by including the project in its draft plan, are trying to back the [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife into a corner. The inclusion will create a veneer that the project is approved, and that presumption will carry the day. “There would be political pressure on them to put away their red pencil,” he said.