4.9 BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES 4.9.1 EXISTING SETTING This section describes the existing biological resources including the special-status species and sensitive habitats known to occur or that potentially occur in the City of San Mateo General Plan Update Planning Area (herein referred to as Planning Area), the regulations and programs which provide for their protection, and an assessment of the potential impacts of implementing the City of San Mateo General Plan Update 2025 (General Plan Update). This section also includes a discussion of mitigation measures necessary to reduce impacts to a less than significant level, where feasible. The biological resources within the Planning Area were determined from a review of previous environmental documentation for the Planning Area including the City of San Mateo General Plan (1990). Furthermore, a number of other resources were used for this assessment including an online list of federally listed species provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Endangered Species Office (USFWS 2009a), the California Department of Fish and Game’s (CDFG) California Natural Diversity Data Base (CNDDB) (CDFG 2009), and the California Native Plant Society’s (CNPS) Electronic Inventory (CNPS 2009) for the San Mateo, California, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS 1993) 7.5-minute quadrangle and surrounding quadrangles (Appendix D). Methodology utilized in the analysis is described further under subsection 4.9.3 (Impacts and Mitigation Measures). REGIONAL SETTING The City of San Mateo is located on the San Francisco Peninsula, on the shores of San Francisco Bay in San Mateo County, California (Figure 3.0-1). San Mateo is located south of the City of San Francisco. The San Francisco Bay and Delta make up the Pacific Coast’s largest estuary, encompassing roughly 1,600 square miles of waterways and draining over 40 percent of California’s fresh water. The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers flow from Northern California’s inland valleys into the Delta’s winding system of islands, sloughs, canals, and channels, before emptying into San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The San Francisco Bay Area supports an extensive diversity of distinct vegetative communities. Broad habitat categories in the region generally include coastal scrubs, oak woodlands, grasslands, estuaries, coastal salt marsh, riparian habitats, eucalyptus groves, interior wetlands, and rivers and streams. Interior wetlands, estuaries, rivers and streams, and urban or highly disturbed habitats, although not vegetative communities, provide natural functions and values as wildlife habitat. The San Francisco Bay is part of the Pacific Flyway, the route taken by migrating waterfowl twice each year. The marshes and mudflats of the San Francisco Bay provide important feeding and roosting habitat for these migrating birds. In the fall, migrating waterfowl and shorebirds by the hundreds of thousands arrive from the north to rest and feed before resuming their flights southward to Mexico and Central and South America. In the spring, waves of shorebirds are seen once again as they return. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING The Planning Area includes the incorporated City, the Planning Area, and the City’s Sphere of Influence (SOI) (Figure 3.0-2). The Planning Area encompasses 15.7 square miles (3.2 square miles of which are bay waters), including the City of San Mateo (13.5 square miles) and the unincorporated lands (2.2 square miles) as depicted on Figure 3.0-2. The City is bounded by the San Francisco Bay and Foster City to the east, by the City of Belmont to the south, by the Town of City of San Mateo General Plan Update July 2009 Draft Environmental Impact Report 4.9-1 4.9 BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES Hillsborough and the City of Burlingame to the north, and by unincorporated county lands to the west. Interstate 280 (I-280) is just to the west of the Planning Area, and U.S. Highway 101 travels through the eastern portion of the Planning Area in a north-south direction. The Planning Area consists largely of residential and commercial development with some parks/open spaces, primarily along the east side of the Planning Area. Coyote Point Park, a rock outcropped peninsula that juts out into San Francisco Bay, is the largest park/open space within the Planning Area. The surrounding vicinity is composed of a similar mix of residential, commercial, and open space areas. PHYSICAL SETTING The Planning Area has a wide range of climate, topographical, watershed, and soils conditions. The climate is temperate and subhumid and is modified greatly by marine influence (USDA 1997). Summer fog is common in this area. Annual temperatures range from an average maximum of 66.8 degrees Fahrenheit (°F) to an average minimum of 47.1°F (Western Regional Climate Center 2009). Average total mean annual precipitation for the San Mateo area is 20.16 inches (WRCC 2007) and the mean freeze-free period is about 250 to 300 days (USDA 1997). The topography in the Planning Area and vicinity is varied, ranging from the San Francisco Bay marshes to the foothills to the west. Elevation within the Planning Area ranges from 0 feet (sea level) to approximately 675 feet (205.74 meters) above mean sea level (MSL) at the College of San Mateo. Dominant natural features within the Planning Area include San Mateo Creek, which flows from Crystal Springs Reservoir to the San Francisco Bay, Coyote Point County Park, the 225- acre Sugarloaf open space area, Marina Lagoon, and the 3-mile length of shoreline along the San Francisco Bay. As described in more detail further below, the Planning Area contains various waterways and creeks including the Marina Lagoon (formally Seal Slough), San Mateo Creek, Polhemus Creek, Laurel Creek, Madera Creek, and others. San Mateo Creek forms the northern boundary of the City with the Town of Hillsborough, and Laurel Creek runs along the southern city boundary with the City of Belmont. To improve the quality of creek runoff, San Mateo joined the San Mateo Countywide Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program (STOPPP). Other notable creeks are Edgewood Creek, which parallels Edgewood Road as it crosses private property, and Beresford Creek, which flows from the canyons south of Campus Drive to the 19th Avenue Channel. Please refer to Section 4.8, Hydrology and Water Quality, for more details on hydrologic features within the Planning Area. The Planning Area is located within the Coast Ranges geomorphic province of California that stretches from the Oregon border on the north nearly to Point Conception on the south. In the San Francisco Bay area, most of the Coast Ranges have developed on a basement of tectonically mixed Cretaceous- and Jurassic-age (70 to 200 million years old) rocks of the Franciscan Complex. Please refer to Section 4.7, Geology and Soils, for more details and references. General Plan Update City of San Mateo Draft Environmental Impact Report July 2009 4.9-2 San Francisco Bay el nn Cha Mar ek e in a Cr k ave th ee 16 r C ood Foster City Lagoon Edgew nel o Chan ate M 19th ave L ago Creek o n Creek Borel San Unnamed Creek rd Beresfo rel Lau Creek P o lh em us Cree k k Dam Cree m Da k aurel L ree C l aure L E. Legend San Mateo City Limit Coastal Oak Woodland Planning Area Boundary Coastal Scrub Drainage Eucalyptus Lacustrine Calveg Habitats Saline Emergent Wetland Annual Grassland Urban Blue Oak Woodland Valley Foothill Riparian Chamise-Redshank Chaparral Valley Oak Woodland Source: USDA Forest Service - Remote Sensing Lab, 2007; USDA FSA NAIP, 2005; City of San Mateo, 2009; PMC, 2009 2,000 0 2,000 Figure 4.9-1 Biological Communities within the Planning Area FEET 4.9 BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES BIOLOGICAL SETTING For planning and mapping purposes, twelve biological communities have been identified within the Planning Area and are depicted on Figure 4.9-1. Dominant biological communities within the Planning Area include annual grassland, blue oak woodland, chamise-redshank chaparral, coastal oak woodland, coastal scrub, eucalyptus, lacustrine, riverine, saline emergent wetland, urban, valley foothill riparian, and valley oak woodland. Each of the biological communities within the Planning Area, including common plant and wildlife species, is described further below. Table 4.9-1 below outlines the acreages of each biological community found within the Planning Area according to the United States Forest Service (USFS) Classification and Assessment with Landsat of Visible Ecological Groupings (CALVEG) data (USFS 2005). This analysis is based on land cover mapping undertaken at a regional scale (2.5 acres for contrasting vegetation conditions based on cover type, vegetation type, tree cover from above classes, and overstory tree diameter classes) and therefore should be used within that context. The CALVEG classification is a provisional system that meets the floristically based level of the National Vegetation Classification Standard hierarchy. These vegetation alliances were originally developed by the Region’s Ecology Program in 1978. The descriptions and keys are being maintained and updated by the Pacific Southwest Region. The system currently consists of 178 distinct vegetation and land use types. At the state level, the CALVEG system crosswalks to types in the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships (CWHR) System (Meyer and Laudenslayer 1988) and its later versions. CWHR is an extensive compilation of community-level information describing existing vegetation types important to wildlife. TABLE 4.9-1 ACREAGE OF BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES WITHIN THE PLANNING AREA Biological Communities Acres Annual Grassland 213.28 Blue Oak Woodland 77.51 Chamise-Redshank Chaparral 46.36 Coastal Oak Woodland 410.32 Coastal Scrub 35.32 Eucalyptus 41.19 Lacustrine 302.06 Riverine* Unknown Saline Emergent Wetland 43.42 Urban 7,784.50 Valley-Foothill Riparian 36.22 Valley Oak Woodland 48.97 TOTAL 9,039.15 Source: USFS 2005 *This biological community was not included in the CALVEG data provided by USFS although it is known to occur within the Planning Area.