Grant Project Summary:
Ventura County, California, Planning Division
Environmental Impact Biological Assessments: Spatial Data Capture and Delivery
July 2005 to September 2007
Project Summary
The Ventura County Planning
Division and the NOAA Coastal Services Center entered a cooperative agreement to develop a comprehensive geographic information system (GIS) database of biological resources at a parcel scale for Ventura County, California. The Ventura County Planning Division oversees the planning for, and permitting of, land uses within the unincorporated area of Ventura County, which includes over 43 miles of coastline and nearly 500,000 acres of coastal watershed area; however, county planners have only limited digital spatial information on the distribution of biological resources. County planning staff members believe that a fine-scale, parcel-level inventory of biological resources is necessary to make sound land use and permitting decisions.
The California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA) requires that parcel-level biological surveys, called Initial Study Biological Assessments, be conducted as part of the environmental impact review processes, but these biological reviews are submitted in hard copy format. Ventura County developed a Web-based application to digitally capture and submit future biological assessments to make future data available to resource agencies. Ventura County developed a comprehensive GIS database of biological resources using existing data from past biological assessments and new data collected via the Web application. Ventura County made biological data available through an ArcIMS map viewer for resource managers and the general public. Ventura County partnered with a biological consultant and a Web application developer to complete the project.
NOAA Coastal Services Center's Role
The NOAA Coastal Services Center will lead the design and development of the proposed ArcIMS biological inventory interface and database, and will lead a user training session of the tool. The Center will provide metadata tools and templates for the county to use in the development of their documentation.
Grantee Overview
The Ventura County Planning Division was started in the late 1930s. It functioned as an independent organization until the 1970s when it merged with the Environment
Resource Agency (ERA), which was eventually retitled the Resource Management Agency (RMA). The planning division remains a sector of the RMA today and is located in Ventura, California. The organization is divided into five sections: zoning administration, general plans, regional programs, residential permits, and commercial-industrial permits. The mission of the agency is to develop and implement land use goals and programs that will preserve the county’s resources, minimize hazards, and promote livable communities and cost-effective public facilities for all socioeconomic groups.
Back to Grant Page Summaries
