The California and Federal Endangered Species Acts protect special status species like the California Tiger Salamander. Permit Sonoma only reviews environmental issues when approving discretionary permits, like use permits. In that case, the County would conduct environmental review and would require any impacts to species or habitat to be mitigated. These discretionary permits would likely require biological assessments at the expense of the applicant, and typically require significant time and expense to pursue.
In every zoning district, there are two types of uses allowed: 1) uses that are permitted by right and require no planning permits or only what are called “ministerial” permits, and 2) conditional uses (referred to in the zoning ordinance as “uses permitted with a use permit”) which require use permits (“discretionary” permits).
Permitted uses don’t trigger the County’s environmental review and we rely on the applicant to work with State and federal resource agencies to ensure that work will not harm any protected species or habitat. A building permit is a ministerial permit and therefore the County would not require environmental review. Please review the Notice to Recipients of Ministerial Permits page for further information.