Receipt of Application for Renewal of an Incidental Take Permit for the Sand Skink; Lake County, FL; Categorical Exclusion

Resumo

We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce receipt of an application from Sunterra Communities, LLC (applicant) for renewal of an incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act. If granted, the renewed ITP would authorize take of the federally listed as threatened sand skink (Neoseps reynoldsi) incidental to the construction of a residential and commercial development in Lake County, Florida. The applicant requests the renewal of the ITP to extend the expiration date for 5 additional years. There is no request for additional take or increases in development levels. The proposed renewal maintains the existing levels of take and renews the permit through June 14, 2029. We request public comment on the application, which includes the applicant's original unchanged habitat conservation plan (HCP), and the Service's determination that the proposed renewal remains eligible for a categorical exclusion pursuant to the Council on Environmental Quality's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, the Department of the Interior's (DOI) NEPA regulations, and the DOI Departmental Manual. To make this preliminary determination, we used our existing environmen