[PART II. RECOVERY]
§195D-21 Habitat conservation plans. (a) The department may enter into a planning process with any landowner for the purpose of preparing and implementing a habitat conservation plan. An agreement may include multiple landowners. Applications to enter into a planning process shall identify:
After a habitat conservation plan is prepared, the board shall notify the public of the proposed habitat conservation plan through the periodic bulletin of the office of planning and sustainable development and make the proposed plan and the application available for public review and comment not less than sixty days prior to approval. The notice shall include but not be limited to identification of the area encompassed by the plan, the proposed activity, and the ecosystems, natural communities, and habitat types within the plan area. The notice shall solicit public input and relevant data.
(c) The board shall disapprove a habitat conservation plan if the board determines, based upon the best scientific and other reliable data available at the time its determination is made, that the cumulative activities, if any, contemplated to be undertaken within the areas covered by the plan are not environmentally beneficial, or that implementation of the plan:
The habitat conservation plan shall contain sufficient information for the board to ascertain with reasonable certainty the likely effect of the plan upon any endangered, threatened, proposed, or candidate species in the plan area and throughout its habitat range.
(d) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, the board shall suspend or revoke the approval of any habitat conservation plan approved under this section if the board determines that:
(e) The rights and obligations under any habitat conservation plan shall run with the land and shall be recorded by the department in the bureau of conveyances or the land court, as may be appropriate.
(f) Participants in a habitat conservation plan shall submit an annual report to the department within ninety days of each fiscal year ending June 30, that includes a description of activities and accomplishments, analysis of the problems and issues encountered in meeting or failing to meet the objectives set forth in the habitat conservation plan, areas needing technical advice, status of funding, and plans and management objectives for the next fiscal year, including any proposed modifications thereto. [L 1997, c 380, pt of §2; am L 1998, c 237, §2; am L 2003, c 35, §4; am L 2004, c 10, §6; am L 2021, c 152, §6 and c 153, §9; am L 2022, c 215, §1]