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The Habitat Connectivity and Wildlife Corridor (HCWC) overlay zone layer outlines areas of greater interest to Ventura County for their ability to facilitate wildlife movement which is important to the health of local biological resources. These areas are largely undeveloped and contain different kinds of habitats which facilitate movement and support local ecosystems. The goal of the County HCWC ordinances is to minimize habitat fragmentation, maintain sufficient width for wildlife movement, minimize physical barriers to wildlife movement and minimize indirect barriers to wildlife movement. Please see Ord. 4537, Sections, 8102-0, 8103-0, 8104-7 8105-4, 8105-5, 8109-4.8 and 8109-4.9 for more information. |
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The Habitat Connectivity and Wildlife Corridor (HCWC) overlay zone layer outlines areas of greater interest to Ventura County for their ability to facilitate wildlife movement which is important to the health of local biological resources. These areas are largely undeveloped and contain different kinds of habitats which facilitate movement and support local ecosystems. The goal of the County HCWC ordinances is to minimize habitat fragmentation, maintain sufficient width for wildlife movement, minimize physical barriers to wildlife movement and minimize indirect barriers to wildlife movement. Please see Ord. 4537, Sections, 8102-0, 8103-0, 8104-7 8105-4, 8105-5, 8109-4.8 and 8109-4.9 for more information. |
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<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><DIV><P><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt">On March 19, 2019, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors adopted a regional habitat connectivity and wildlife corridor overlay zone and its associated regulations in the Ventura County Non-Coastal Zoning Ordinance (</SPAN><A href="https://rma.venturacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ordinance-4537-habitat-connectivity-and-wildlife-corridors-overlay-zones.pdf" STYLE="text-decoration:underline;"><SPAN>Ord. 4537</SPAN></A><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt">). The regulations provide protections for wildlife movement that fall within the HCWC when proposed development may degrade those areas. The development regulations that apply within the HCWC focuses on four main objectives: reducing habitat fragmentation; maintaining or improving corridor widths and critical chokepoints where movement is restricted; minimizing physical barriers like roads and fences; and limiting indirect barriers such as artificial lighting, domestic animals, and human disturbances. For more information, please see non-coastal zoning ordinance. </SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:7 0 7 0;"><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt">The HCWC overlay boundary is based off of the </SPAN><A href="https://rma.venturacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/south-coast-missing-linkages-regional-report.pdf" STYLE="text-decoration:underline;"><SPAN>South Coast Missing Linkages: A Wildland Network for the South Coast Ecoregion</SPAN></A><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt"> ( South Coast Wildlands). The report identified critical movement corridors—natural or undeveloped habitat areas that enable wildlife and plants to migrate, forage, breed, and disperse across the landscape. These corridors vary in size and composition, including riparian zones, streams, canyons, and wooded ridgelines, and sometimes extend into vegetated areas within developed regions. Ventura County contains several key linkages identified within the report such as the Sierra Madre – Castaic Connection, the Santa Monica – Sierra Madre Connection (including the Santa Clara River), and the Ventura River Corridor (the Ventura River was added in by the County as a critical wildlife linkage within the HCWC overlay zone). For a detailed explanation of the model, please see </SPAN><A href="http://www.scwildlands.org/reports/scml_santamonica_sierramadre.pdf" STYLE="text-decoration:underline;"><SPAN STYLE="font-size:10pt">South Coast Missing Linkage Project</SPAN></A><SPAN STYLE="font-size:14pt">: </SPAN><SPAN STYLE="font-size:12pt">A linkage design for the Santa Monica – Sierra Madre Connection (South Coast Wildlands, 2006). The locations of the wildlife corridors are shown on the "HCWC Wildlife Corridors" map layer within the County of Ventura Resource Management Agency </SPAN><A href="https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/72a5f1d716ab4f4e8e288f3c0b41d23a" STYLE="text-decoration:underline;"><SPAN><SPAN>Ventura County Biological Resources GIS Viewer</SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN STYLE="font-size:16pt">.</SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:7 0 7 0;"><SPAN /></P><P STYLE="margin:7 0 7 0;"><A href="https://maps.ventura.org/arcgis/rest/services/SDs/PlanningGIS_Biological/MapServer/7" STYLE="text-decoration:underline;"><SPAN><SPAN>https://maps.ventura.org/arcgis/rest/services/SDs/PlanningGIS_Biological/MapServer/7</SPAN></SPAN></A></P></DIV></DIV></DIV> |
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Habitat Connectivity and Wildlife Corridors (HCWC) Overlay Zone |
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["Ventura County","Ventura","Santa Paula","Simi Valley","Moorpark","Thousand Oaks","Ojai","Sulfur Mountain","Oxnard","Tierra Rejada Valley","Simi Hills","Oakview","Santa Monica Mountains","Santa Monica Mountains \u2013 Sierra Madre","Santa Clara River","Ventura River","ISAG","California Environmental Quality Act","CEQA","Data Review","Biodiversity","Initial Study Biological Assessment","ISBA","Conservation","Ecology","Movement","Dispersal","Planning","Habitat","Connectivity","Biological Resources","Wildlife Movement","Linkage"] |
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en-US |
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