Eligibility

Follow the steps below to determine if your project is eligible for abbreviated Letter of Permission (LOP) permitting procedures within the San Diego Creek Watershed SAMP:


  1. Is your project located outside or within an aquatic resource integrity area?

    Check your project’s location on the map below to find out:

  2. Does your project qualify as an eligible activity?

    Qualifying activities outside aquatic resource integrity areas:

    If your project is located outside of aquatic resource integrity areas, does it meet one of the following descriptions?

    1. Public and private utilities, including utility lines and maintenance of utility lines;
    2. Public and private drainage and flood control facilities, including construction of outfall and intake structures, construction of bank stabilization structures, and maintenance of all flood control facilities;
    3. Public and private road crossings, including bridges, culverts, lengthening, widening, and maintenance;
    4. Public and private land development, including residential, commercial, institutional, and recreational uses;
    5. Storm water treatment and management facilities (construction and/or maintenance of new and existing facilities);
    6. Habitat restoration and enhancement projects (construction and/or maintenance of new and existing projects); and
    7. Fire abatement and vegetative fuel management activities. This activity may include vegetation removal, thinning of vegetation, as well as temporary access roads and staging areas. In many cases, as the Corps does not regulate removal of vegetation with hand tools, this activity may not be a Corps‐jurisdictional activity; the activity would then be solely under the jurisdiction of the Department.

    Non-qualifying activities outside aquatic resource integrity areas:

    Within otherwise eligible areas outside the aquatic resource integrity areas, certain activities would be excluded from obtaining authorization by LOP procedures and would require evaluation under a standard individual permit process:

    1. Activities that would substantially alter a compensatory mitigation site;
    2. Capital improvement flood control projects involving conversion of a soft‐bottom channel to a concrete‐lined channel; and
    3. Capital improvement flood control projects within the major stream systems, including Borrego Canyon Wash, Hicks Canyon Wash, Peters Canyon Wash, San Diego Creek, and Serrano Creek.

    Qualifying activities within aquatic resource integrity areas:

    If your project is located within a higher value aquatic resource area, does it meet one of the following descriptions?

    1. Maintenance and repair of public and private utilities, including utility lines;
    2. Maintenance and repair of public and private drainage and flood control facilities, including outfall and intake structures, bank stabilization structures, flood control channels (consistent with an established Corps‐approved maintenance baseline3), flood control basins (consistent with an established Corps‐approved maintenance baseline), and landfill concrete channels and sedimentation basins (consistent with an established maintenance baseline);
    3. Maintenance and repair of public and private road crossings, including bridges and culverts;
    4. Habitat restoration and enhancement projects, including wetland restoration and creation;
    5. Maintenance of storm water treatment and management facilities; and
    6. Fire abatement and vegetative fuel management activities.