Response to Mayor Hughson provided by Melani Howard, Habitat Conservation Plan Manager:
My questions raised per the memo.
We had asked if ALL the fencing is still needed. I hope this is to be determined. The only way to determine whether or not fencing is needed is to open up a section of fencing and monitor any impacts that occur over a year’s time. If no significant impacts occur, then we should be able to open up all the fencing. There is only one location on city parkland that the public historically did not access due to steep banks, and that is a portion of the Veramendi fence, which is located between Purgatory confluence and the Hopkins RR bridge.
Memo goes farther than we had asked by stating that wrought iron fencing, similar to that in upper Sewell Park, will be installed in part. I'm not so sure that we need fencing that expensive. It was requested that I recommend a type of fence, however, wrought iron fence does not have to be the choice of fence.
Of the 3,764 ft of fencing, how much is really still needed, how much is in high traffic, visible areas where we might want the fancy wrought iron fencing, and how much should be just the painted iron pipe we have now (may need to repaint). I'd like to see that analysis from a. iii. The plan for now and later, the one year review. The entire upper San Marcos experiences high traffic during the recreation season. On city parkland, there is heavy use from Ramon Lucio to City Park. The most sensitive sites to public access are City Park, Rio Vista and Bicentennial Park likely because they have the relative heaviest concentration of public use during the recreation season.
Grant funds were noted to fund the fencing at our meeting. Do we have any leads yet? No leads to date.
I was sad to see that Parks Maintenance had paid for the existing fencing since we never have enough in that account for all we want/need to do. (Note that fencing isn't specified in the HCP!) I'm concerned about what was planned that didn't get done that year due to this fencing. How much was spent on HCP fencing from the Parks Maintenance fund? $17,700 was expended on riparian fence. How much was spent from other funds, if any? No other funds were used.
Glad to see the Vegetation Management plan and that there are plants that can be removed, and others than can be pruned. Wondering why we haven't done this already. Limited funds? Can HCP pay for this? If not, what is our plan for now and maintenance? The current HCP riparian contract scope will be adjusted to incorporate this work.
Glad to see the public outreach section but handouts and events that are done but perhaps not repeated means in a year or two, we will be right back where we are now as to who knows what about the fences, etc. Updated webpages, for reference, not a temporary posting on Facebook (good for announcements, not for future research) will be needed. Social media is fine for any upcoming events or annoucements, but we need research info.
Searching on the city website for "Habitat Conservation Plan" gets me where I want to go fairly quickly. "Why are there fences on the river?" provides no useful information.
