How many HCPs are being developed and what size areas do they cover?
As of August, 1996, 190 incidental take permits have issued and approximately 200 are in development. Both the number of HCPs and the size and complexity of the areas they cover have increased. Most of the earlier HCPs approved were for planning areas of less than 1,000 acres. However, of the 200 HCPs being developed as of September 1996, approximately 25 exceed 10,000 acres, 25 exceed 100,000 acres, and 18 exceed 500,000 acres. This suggests that HCPs are evolving from a process adopted primarily to address single developments to one that includes broad-based, landscape-level planning tools utilized to achieve long-term biological and regulatory goals. These large-scale, regional HCPs can significantly reduce the burden of the Act on small landowners by providing efficient mechanisms for compliance, distributing the economic and logistic impacts of endangered species conservation, and bringing a broad range of landowner activities under legal protection of HCPs.
