Receipt of Incidental Take Permit Application; Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC, Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan, Collier County, Florida; Additional Applicant, 3941-3943 [2020-01008]

Download as PDF Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 15 / Thursday, January 23, 2020 / Notices We must receive your written comments on or before February 24, 2020. ADDRESSES: Obtaining Documents: You may obtain copies of the documents online in Docket No. FWS–R4–ES– 2019–0117 at https:// www.regulations.gov. Submitting Comments: If you wish to submit comments on any of the documents, you may do so in writing by any of the following methods: • Online: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments on Docket No. FWS–R4–ES– 2019–0117. • U.S. mail or hand-delivery: Public Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. FWS–R4–ES–2019–0117; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: JAO/1N, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041– 3803. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Erin M. Gawera, by telephone at 904–731– 3121 or via email at erin_gawera@ fws.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce receipt of an application from Holland Development, Inc. for an incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). The applicant requests the ITP to take the federally listed sand skink (Neoseps reynoldsi) incidental to the construction of a housing development (project) in Lake County, Florida. We request public comment on the application, which includes the applicant’s proposed habitat conservation plan (HCP) and the Service’s preliminary determination that this HCP qualifies as ‘‘low-effect,’’ categorically excluded, under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 4231 et seq.). To make this determination, we used our environmental action statement and low-effect screening form, which are also available for public review. jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES DATES: Project Holland Development, Inc. requests a 5-year ITP to take sand skinks by converting approximately 2.8 acres of occupied skink foraging and sheltering habitat incidental to the construction of a housing development on a 26.89-acre property with parcel ID number 09–22– 26–0700–017000000 in Section 19, Township 22 South, Range 26 East, Lake County, Florida. The applicant proposes to mitigate for take of the sand skinks by purchasing 5.6 credits from the Lake Wales Ridge Conservation Bank or another Service-approved sand skink conservation bank. The Service would require the applicant to make this VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:13 Jan 22, 2020 Jkt 250001 3941 purchase prior to engaging in activities associated with the project. of the ESA and NEPA regulation 40 CFR 1506.6. Public Availability of Comments Jay Herrington, Field Supervisor, Jacksonville Field Office, South Atlantic-Gulf & Mississippi-Basin Regions. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, be aware that your entire comment—including your personal identifying information—may be made available to the public. While you may request that we withhold your personal identifying information, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. [FR Doc. 2020–01067 Filed 1–22–20; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4333–15–P DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Fish and Wildlife Service [Docket No. FWS–R4–ES–2018–0079; FXES11140400000–178–FF04EF2000] Our Preliminary Determination The Service has made a preliminary determination that the applicant’s project, including land clearing, infrastructure building, landscaping, and the proposed mitigation measure, would individually and cumulatively have a minor or negligible effect on sand skinks and the environment. Therefore, we have preliminarily concluded that the ITP for this project would qualify for categorical exclusion and the HCP is low effect under our NEPA regulations at 43 CFR 46.205 and 46.210. A loweffect HCP is one that would result in (1) minor or negligible effects on federally listed, proposed, and candidate species and their habitats; (2) minor or negligible effects on other environmental values or resources; and, (3) impacts that, when considered together with the impacts of other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable similarly situated projects, would not result in significant cumulative effects to environmental values or resources over time. Next Steps The Service will evaluate the application and the comments to determine whether to issue the requested permit. We will also conduct an intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA to evaluate the effects of the proposed take. After considering the preceding findings, we will determine whether the permit issuance criteria of section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA have been met. If met, the Service will issue ITP number TE 57069D–0 to Holland Development, Inc. Authority The Service provides this notice under section 10(c) (16 U.S.C. 1539(c)) PO 00000 Frm 00051 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 Receipt of Incidental Take Permit Application; Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC, Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan, Collier County, Florida; Additional Applicant Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior. ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments. AGENCY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce receipt of an application from Gargiulo, Inc. (applicant) for an incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act. The applicant requests to join 11 other landowners, collectively known as ‘‘Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC,’’ in requesting individual 50-year ITPs authorizing take of the Florida panther and 18 other Federal or State-listed species. The take would be incidental to residential and commercial development, earth mining, and lowintensity rural land activities on properties in Collier County, Florida (project). We are accepting comments on Gargiulo, Inc.’s ITP application. DATES: We will accept comments received or postmarked on or before February 21, 2020. Comments submitted electronically at https:// www.regulations.gov must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on the closing date. Any comments we receive after the closing date may not be considered in the final decision on these actions. ADDRESSES: Obtain Documents: You may obtain copies of documents related to this application by the following methods: Internet: https://www.regulations.gov (search for Docket No. FWS–R4–ES– 2018–0079). Field Office: https://www.fws.gov/ verobeach/. Submit Comments: You may submit written comments by the following methods: Internet: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting SUMMARY: E:\FR\FM\23JAN1.SGM 23JAN1 3942 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 15 / Thursday, January 23, 2020 / Notices comments on Docket No. FWS–R4–ES– 2018–0079. Hard Copy: Via U.S. mail or handdelivery to Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS–R4–ES–2018– 0079, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters, JAO/1N, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041–3803. Review Public Comments: Submitted comments may be viewed at https:// www.regulations.gov in Docket No. FWS–R4–ES–2018–0079. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Dell, Regional HCP Coordinator, by mail at Attn: ECPO, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1875 Century Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30345, or by telephone at 404–679–7313; or Constance Cassler, Supervisory Fish and Wildlife Biologist, by mail at the South Florida Ecological Services Office, Attn: ECPO, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1339 20th Street, Vero Beach, FL 32960; or by telephone at 772–469–4356. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have received an application for an incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). The applicant seeks to join 11 other landowners, collectively known as ‘‘Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC’’ (ECPO), in obtaining individual 50-year ITPs. ECPO collaborated on a joint HCP to address long-term land-use planning and conservation issues related to the Florida panther in the east Collier County area (see also https:// www.floridapantherprotection.com). Table 1 lists the species covered by the HCP. The Service announced the availability of 11 landowners’ ITP applications in the Federal Register on October 19, 2018 (83 FR 53078). The applications included a jointly prepared habitat conservation plan (HCP). We also sought comment on our draft environmental impact statement (EIS). The comment period closed on December 3, 2018. All 12 applicants are listed below in Table 2. Applicant Gargiulo, Inc. purchased approximately 5,000 acres from another ECPO member, Collier Enterprises Management, Inc. The purchased tracts are already included in the HCP area, and there have been no changes to the activities covered by the HCP since publication of the October 19, 2018, notice. TABLE 1—HCP-COVERED WILDLIFE SPECIES AND THEIR PROTECTED STATUSES Status Common name Listed as endangered under the ESA .......................................... Florida panther .................................... Florida bonneted bat ........................... Red-cockaded woodpecker ................ Everglade snail kite ............................ Wood stork ......................................... Crested caracara ................................ Florida scrub jay ................................. Eastern indigo snake .......................... Gopher tortoise ................................... Eastern diamondback rattlesnake ...... Gopher frog ......................................... Big Cypress fox squirrel ..................... Everglades mink ................................. Burrowing owl ..................................... Florida sandhill crane ......................... Little blue heron .................................. Roseate spoonbill ............................... Southeastern American kestrel .......... Tricolored heron .................................. Listed as threatened under the ESA ............................................ Candidate species or species under review for Federal listing ... State-listed species ....................................................................... TABLE 2—MEMBERS OF EASTERN COLLIER PROPERTY OWNERS, LLC, AND THEIR INCIDENTAL TAKE PERMIT APPLICATION NUMBERS Permit application Nos. jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES Applicants Alico Land Development, Inc ............. Barron Collier Investment, Ltd ........... Collier Enterprises Management, Inc Consolidated Citrus Limited Partnership. English Brothers Partnership ............. Gargiulo, Inc ...................................... Half Circle L Ranch, LLP ................... Heller Bros. Packing Corp ................. JB Ranch I, LLC ................................ Owl Hammock Immokalee, LLC ........ Pacific Land, Ltd ................................ Sunniland Family Limited Partnership TE05647D–0 TE04440D–0 TE04443D–0 TE04471D–0 TE04152D–0 TE54442D–0 TE05238D–0 TE05668D–0 TE04473D–0 TE06114D–0 TE05665D–0 TE04472D–0 Background Section 9 of the ESA and its implementing regulations prohibit ‘‘take’’ of federally listed ‘‘threatened’’ VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:13 Jan 22, 2020 Jkt 250001 or ‘‘endangered’’ fish and wildlife species. However, section 10(a) of the ESA provides exceptions to the prohibition by allowing the Service to issue permits authorizing take of listed species where such take is incidental to, and not the purpose of, otherwise lawful activities, provided the applicant meets certain statutory requirements. The ECPO HCP proposes a programmatic approach and framework for engaging in incidental take of the covered species while providing for the permanent protection of portions of the HCP area via conservation easements and funding for conservation activities in addition to those provided in the HCP. ECPO collectively owns a total of 151,779 acres within the approximately 174,000-acre HCP area. Up to 45,000 acres of the area could be developed or used for other activities under the HCP. Impacts to covered species from the project would be mitigated through PO 00000 Frm 00052 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 Scientific name Puma concolor coryi. Eumops floridanus. Picoides borealis. Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus. Mycteria americana. Polyborus plancus audubonii. Aphelocoma coerulescens. Drymarchon corais couperi. Gopherus polyphemus. Crotalus adamanteus. Lithobates capito. Sciurus niger avicennia. Neovison vison evergladensis. Athene cunicularia. Antigone canadensis pratensis. Egretta caerulea. Platalea ajaja. Falco sparverius paulus. Egretta tricolor. habitat management measures, the placement of conservation easements on up to 107,000 acres of the HCP area, and contributions to a conservation endowment, the Marinelli Fund, to implement conservation measures for the covered species throughout and beyond the HCP area. Draft Environmental Impact Statement We published a notice of intent to prepare an EIS for ECPO’s HCP in the Federal Register on March 25, 2016 (81 FR 16200). A public scoping meeting was held in Naples, Florida, on April 12, 2016, and an online public participation webcast was conducted on April 19, 2016. We incorporated issues identified during the scoping meetings into the draft EIS. A summary of the comments received during the scoping period is provided in the scoping report appended to the draft EIS. We published E:\FR\FM\23JAN1.SGM 23JAN1 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 15 / Thursday, January 23, 2020 / Notices a notice of availability of the draft EIS on October 19, 2018. The draft EIS assesses the likely environmental impacts associated with the implementation of the activities proposed in the HCP compared to the likely consequences of not issuing the requested ITPs, i.e., uncoordinated project-by-project and lot-by-lot planning and mitigation. The Department of the Army, through its bureau the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, is a cooperating agency in the development of the draft EIS. Public Comments Comments previously submitted on the HCP, draft EIS, or 11 ITP applications need not be resubmitted. We have incorporated them into the public record and will fully consider them in our deliberations on whether to issue the requested ITPs. If you wish to comment on Gargiulo, Inc.’s ITP application, you may submit comments by any one of the methods listed above in ADDRESSES. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, be aware that your entire comment—including your personal identifying information—may be made available to the public at any time. While you may request in your comment that we withhold your personal identifying information, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. Next Steps We will evaluate the HCP, draft EIS, and public comments to determine whether the ITP application meets the permit issuance requirements of section 10(a) of the ESA. We will also conduct an intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA. If the requirements for permit issuance are met, we will issue an ITP to the applicant. jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES Authority We provide this notice under section 10 of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), ESA regulations in Title 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and NEPA regulation 40 CFR 1506.6. Mike Oetker, Deputy Regional Director. [FR Doc. 2020–01008 Filed 1–22–20; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4333–15–P VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:13 Jan 22, 2020 Jkt 250001 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Bureau of Land Management [L14400000.PN0000/LLWO350000/20X; OMB Control Number 1004–0009] Agency Information Collection Activities; Land Use Application and Permit Bureau of Land Management, Interior. ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment. AGENCY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing to renew an information collection. SUMMARY: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before March 23, 2020. ADDRESSES: Send your comments on this information collection request (ICR) by mail to Chandra Little. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, 1849 C Street NW, Room 2134LM, Washington, DC 20240; or by email to cclittle@blm.gov. Please reference OMB Control Number 1004– 0009 in the subject line of your comments. DATES: To request additional information about this ICR, contact Jeremy Bluma by email at jbluma@blm.gov, or by telephone at 208–373–3847. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the BLM provides the general public and other Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on new, proposed, revised, and continuing collections of information. This helps to assess the impact of the BLM’s information collection requirements and minimize the public’s reporting burden. It also helps the public understand the BLM’s information collection requirements and provides the requested data in the desired format. The BLM is soliciting comments on the proposed ICR that is described below. The BLM is especially interested in public comment addressing the following issues: (1) Is the collection necessary to the proper functions of the BLM; (2) will this information be processed and used in a timely manner; (3) is the estimate of burden accurate; (4) how might the BLM enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (5) how might the BLM minimize the burden of this collection on the respondents, FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: PO 00000 Frm 00053 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 9990 3943 including through the use of information technology. Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of public record. The BLM will include or summarize each comment in our request to OMB to approve this ICR. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment—including your personal identifying information—may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask in your comment to the BLM to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, the BLM cannot guarantee that it will be able to do so. Abstract: This control number enables the BLM to obtain the information that is necessary in order to authorize the issuance of leases, permits, and easements for a variety of uses of public lands. Title of Collection: Land Use Application and Permit. OMB Control Number: 1004–0009. Form: Form 2920–1. Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection. Description of Respondents: Individuals, state and local governments, and businesses that wish to use public lands. Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 407. Estimated Completion Time per Response: Varies from 1 to 120 hours, depending on activity. Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 2,455. Respondent’s Obligation: Required to obtain or retain a benefit. Frequency of Collection: On occasion. Total Estimated Annual Nonhour Burden Cost: $131,760. An agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The authority for this action is the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). Chandra Little, Bureau of Land Management, Acting Information Collection Clearance Officer. [FR Doc. 2020–01098 Filed 1–22–20; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4310–84–P E:\FR\FM\23JAN1.SGM 23JAN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 15 (Thursday, January 23, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3941-3943]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-01008]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079; FXES11140400000-178-FF04EF2000]


Receipt of Incidental Take Permit Application; Eastern Collier 
Property Owners, LLC, Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan, Collier 
County, Florida; Additional Applicant

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce 
receipt of an application from Gargiulo, Inc. (applicant) for an 
incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act. The 
applicant requests to join 11 other landowners, collectively known as 
``Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC,'' in requesting individual 50-
year ITPs authorizing take of the Florida panther and 18 other Federal 
or State-listed species. The take would be incidental to residential 
and commercial development, earth mining, and low-intensity rural land 
activities on properties in Collier County, Florida (project). We are 
accepting comments on Gargiulo, Inc.'s ITP application.

DATES: We will accept comments received or postmarked on or before 
February 21, 2020. Comments submitted electronically at https://www.regulations.gov must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on the 
closing date. Any comments we receive after the closing date may not be 
considered in the final decision on these actions.

ADDRESSES: 
    Obtain Documents: You may obtain copies of documents related to 
this application by the following methods:
    Internet: https://www.regulations.gov (search for Docket No. FWS-R4-
ES-2018-0079).
    Field Office: https://www.fws.gov/verobeach/.
    Submit Comments: You may submit written comments by the following 
methods:
    Internet: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting

[[Page 3942]]

comments on Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079.
    Hard Copy: Via U.S. mail or hand-delivery to Public Comments 
Processing, Attn: FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
Headquarters, JAO/1N, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.
    Review Public Comments: Submitted comments may be viewed at https://www.regulations.gov in Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Dell, Regional HCP Coordinator, 
by mail at Attn: ECPO, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1875 Century 
Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30345, or by telephone at 404-679-7313; or 
Constance Cassler, Supervisory Fish and Wildlife Biologist, by mail at 
the South Florida Ecological Services Office, Attn: ECPO, U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service, 1339 20th Street, Vero Beach, FL 32960; or by 
telephone at 772-469-4356.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have 
received an application for an incidental take permit (ITP) under the 
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et 
seq.). The applicant seeks to join 11 other landowners, collectively 
known as ``Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC'' (ECPO), in obtaining 
individual 50-year ITPs. ECPO collaborated on a joint HCP to address 
long-term land-use planning and conservation issues related to the 
Florida panther in the east Collier County area (see also https://www.floridapantherprotection.com). Table 1 lists the species covered by 
the HCP. The Service announced the availability of 11 landowners' ITP 
applications in the Federal Register on October 19, 2018 (83 FR 53078). 
The applications included a jointly prepared habitat conservation plan 
(HCP). We also sought comment on our draft environmental impact 
statement (EIS). The comment period closed on December 3, 2018. All 12 
applicants are listed below in Table 2.

Applicant

    Gargiulo, Inc. purchased approximately 5,000 acres from another 
ECPO member, Collier Enterprises Management, Inc. The purchased tracts 
are already included in the HCP area, and there have been no changes to 
the activities covered by the HCP since publication of the October 19, 
2018, notice.

   Table 1--HCP-Covered Wildlife Species and Their Protected Statuses
------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status                   Common name       Scientific name
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Listed as endangered under the    Florida panther...  Puma concolor
 ESA.                                                  coryi.
                                  Florida bonneted    Eumops floridanus.
                                   bat.
                                  Red-cockaded        Picoides borealis.
                                   woodpecker.
                                  Everglade snail     Rostrhamus
                                   kite.               sociabilis
                                                       plumbeus.
Listed as threatened under the    Wood stork........  Mycteria
 ESA.                                                  americana.
                                  Crested caracara..  Polyborus plancus
                                                       audubonii.
                                  Florida scrub jay.  Aphelocoma
                                                       coerulescens.
                                  Eastern indigo      Drymarchon corais
                                   snake.              couperi.
Candidate species or species      Gopher tortoise...  Gopherus
 under review for Federal                              polyphemus.
 listing.
                                  Eastern             Crotalus
                                   diamondback         adamanteus.
                                   rattlesnake.
                                  Gopher frog.......  Lithobates capito.
State-listed species............  Big Cypress fox     Sciurus niger
                                   squirrel.           avicennia.
                                  Everglades mink...  Neovison vison
                                                       evergladensis.
                                  Burrowing owl.....  Athene
                                                       cunicularia.
                                  Florida sandhill    Antigone
                                   crane.              canadensis
                                                       pratensis.
                                  Little blue heron.  Egretta caerulea.
                                  Roseate spoonbill.  Platalea ajaja.
                                  Southeastern        Falco sparverius
                                   American kestrel.   paulus.
                                  Tricolored heron..  Egretta tricolor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


   Table 2--Members of Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC, and Their
               Incidental Take Permit Application Numbers
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                Applicants                    Permit  application  Nos.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alico Land Development, Inc...............  TE05647D-0
Barron Collier Investment, Ltd............  TE04440D-0
Collier Enterprises Management, Inc.......  TE04443D-0
Consolidated Citrus Limited Partnership...  TE04471D-0
English Brothers Partnership..............  TE04152D-0
Gargiulo, Inc.............................  TE54442D-0
Half Circle L Ranch, LLP..................  TE05238D-0
Heller Bros. Packing Corp.................  TE05668D-0
JB Ranch I, LLC...........................  TE04473D-0
Owl Hammock Immokalee, LLC................  TE06114D-0
Pacific Land, Ltd.........................  TE05665D-0
Sunniland Family Limited Partnership......  TE04472D-0
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Background

    Section 9 of the ESA and its implementing regulations prohibit 
``take'' of federally listed ``threatened'' or ``endangered'' fish and 
wildlife species. However, section 10(a) of the ESA provides exceptions 
to the prohibition by allowing the Service to issue permits authorizing 
take of listed species where such take is incidental to, and not the 
purpose of, otherwise lawful activities, provided the applicant meets 
certain statutory requirements.
    The ECPO HCP proposes a programmatic approach and framework for 
engaging in incidental take of the covered species while providing for 
the permanent protection of portions of the HCP area via conservation 
easements and funding for conservation activities in addition to those 
provided in the HCP. ECPO collectively owns a total of 151,779 acres 
within the approximately 174,000-acre HCP area. Up to 45,000 acres of 
the area could be developed or used for other activities under the HCP. 
Impacts to covered species from the project would be mitigated through 
habitat management measures, the placement of conservation easements on 
up to 107,000 acres of the HCP area, and contributions to a 
conservation endowment, the Marinelli Fund, to implement conservation 
measures for the covered species throughout and beyond the HCP area.

Draft Environmental Impact Statement

    We published a notice of intent to prepare an EIS for ECPO's HCP in 
the Federal Register on March 25, 2016 (81 FR 16200). A public scoping 
meeting was held in Naples, Florida, on April 12, 2016, and an online 
public participation webcast was conducted on April 19, 2016. We 
incorporated issues identified during the scoping meetings into the 
draft EIS. A summary of the comments received during the scoping period 
is provided in the scoping report appended to the draft EIS. We 
published

[[Page 3943]]

a notice of availability of the draft EIS on October 19, 2018.
    The draft EIS assesses the likely environmental impacts associated 
with the implementation of the activities proposed in the HCP compared 
to the likely consequences of not issuing the requested ITPs, i.e., 
uncoordinated project-by-project and lot-by-lot planning and 
mitigation. The Department of the Army, through its bureau the U.S. 
Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, is a cooperating agency 
in the development of the draft EIS.

Public Comments

    Comments previously submitted on the HCP, draft EIS, or 11 ITP 
applications need not be resubmitted. We have incorporated them into 
the public record and will fully consider them in our deliberations on 
whether to issue the requested ITPs.
    If you wish to comment on Gargiulo, Inc.'s ITP application, you may 
submit comments by any one of the methods listed above in ADDRESSES. 
Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other 
personal identifying information in your comment, be aware that your 
entire comment--including your personal identifying information--may be 
made available to the public at any time. While you may request in your 
comment that we withhold your personal identifying information, we 
cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Next Steps

    We will evaluate the HCP, draft EIS, and public comments to 
determine whether the ITP application meets the permit issuance 
requirements of section 10(a) of the ESA. We will also conduct an 
intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA. If the 
requirements for permit issuance are met, we will issue an ITP to the 
applicant.

Authority

    We provide this notice under section 10 of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1531 
et seq.), ESA regulations in Title 50 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 
4321 et seq.) and NEPA regulation 40 CFR 1506.6.

Mike Oetker,
Deputy Regional Director.
[FR Doc. 2020-01008 Filed 1-22-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4333-15-P
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