San Antonio council members approved the creation of a task force Tuesday to fix what they say are shortcomings in the city’s permitting process for real estate projects in environmentally sensitive areas.

The move comes more than a month after city officials halted construction at the Mansions at La Cantera, a planned luxury apartment complex on the city's Northwest Side where a contractor bulldozed up to 38 acres of trees that might have served as habitat for endangered golden-cheeked warbler songbirds and karst invertebrates — tiny arachnids and beetles that live in caves and sinkholes.

After concerned neighbors complained about the project, the San Antonio Express-News found that real estate developer Matt Hiles hadn't accurately filled out a “habitat compliance form” when he told city officials that no endangered species would be harmed.

City officials want to revise the habitat form to make it clearer and prevent future confusion. San Antonio began using such forms in 2009 to alert the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which enforces the Endangered Species Act, about upcoming real estate projects.

“I think this will go a long way,” said City Councilman Manny Pelaez, a member of the council’s Community Health and Equity Committee, which approved the task force Tuesday.

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The Mansions at La Cantera are in Pelaez's council district. Residents are outraged the construction project denuded a picturesque hillside covered with trees, he said, and they’re unhappy with the city for initially allowing the project to proceed.

“This has set the hair of all my constituents on fire,” Pelaez said.

Hiles didn’t return a message Tuesday.

When Hiles filled out a habitat compliance form in August 2016 for the Mansions at La Cantera, he wrote that biologist Valerie Collins had concluded that the project wouldn't harm endangered warblers and karst invertebrates.

But a copy of Collins’ study obtained by the Express-News shows it focused only on warbler habitat — not habitat for the endangered creatures that live underground.

And records show the study was finished in July 2011 — five years before Hiles filed his plans with the city. San Antonio requires developers to rely on warbler habitat studies that are less than three years old.

After the Express-News asked about the problems in Hiles’ habitat form, San Antonio officials issued a stop-work order to halt the construction project on July 3 while they reviewed Hiles’ paperwork. The project is still on hold.

Michael Shannon, director of the city's Development Services Department, said one problem with the habitat compliance form is that it doesn't require landowners to include a copy of the actual biological studies they’re citing when they claim no endangered species will be harmed.

“I don’t know if I’d call it a loophole, but we don’t request the studies,” Shannon said.

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Another problem: Biologists who study endangered species might not even know when a developer relies on their work.

Collins conducted her warbler survey at the property in 2011 for a different landowner. Collins' employer, Pape-Dawson Engineers, complained Hiles had never disclosed to them he was using Collins’ study to certify Hiles’ project.

James Cannizzo, an environmental lawyer who represents the Army on warbler issues surrounding Camp Bullis, an army training ground on the North Side, said it’s also possible for a landowner to simply check a box on the habitat form and falsely claim there’s no crucial habitat on properties where warblers are probably migrating.

“There’s multiple problems that need to be cleaned up,” said Cannizzo, who spoke before the city council committee Tuesday.

Shannon said the task force members will include a wide array of experts, stakeholders and public officials. Its recommendation will be brought to the council committee for approval before any changes to the city’s habitat form are made.

John Tedesco is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jtedesco@express-news.net | Twitter: @John_Tedesco