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Y • DSS Company has initiated an application for a Use Permit for mining aggregate on ±230 acres in San Joaquin County. + A potential mining site encompassing ±53 0 acres in San Joaquin County is currently under contract to Lonestar. No applications for a Use Permit to mine aggregate on this property have been made to San Joaquin County at this time. Currently the Vernalis study area, although traversed by two interstate freeways and a highway, is served by rural County two lane roadways. Access to the regional highway system is via at grade intersections onto State Routes 33 and 132. Regional access on to Interstate 5 and 580 freeways is then via interchange access from the State Route highways. PROJECT BACKGROUND Recognizing the limited regional access to the interstate freeway system to transport the processed aggregate mining material to its markets, San Joaquin County, Stanislaus County and Caltrans worked together to identify alternative circulation improvements and recommend a regional solution that met the specific truck travel demand created by the mining industry. This transportation planning analysis, which was funded by r Granite Construction as a condition of their use permit, resulted in an adoption of an Amendment to the San li Joaquin County General Plan that located a new interchange on Interstate 5 between Interstate 580 and State Route 132. For that General Plan Amendment approval, a full transportation alternatives analysis was performed along with a complete and certified Environmental Impact Report. For the transportation analysis, a Master Area Circulation Plan (MACP) was created which considered upwards of 28 different circulation concepts, analyzed in depth five circulation improvement alternatives and resulted in a recommendation to consider two circulation improvement alternatives for detailed geometric design study and approval and environmental assessment. In January, 1996, San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, with a unanimous vote, approved the General Plan Amendment which added the planning of a new interchange on Interstate 5 to serve the Vernalis area. Prior to that approval, the same Board of Supervisors also certified an Environmental Impact Report, which li disclosed, evaluated for significance and mitigated, as necessary, potential environmental impacts due to the proposed interchange and roadway extension project. Concurrent with the General Plan Amendment process, the proposed interchange and roadway extension was also being evaluated by both Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration(FHWA) through the Caltrans ! Project Study Report(PSR) conceptual approval process. Approval of this Project Study Report was obtained from Caltrans on March, 1996. In addition, Plans, Specifications and Estimates for the design and construction of both the new interchange and Bird Road roadway extension was also initiated in March, 1995, ' with hopes to begin construction in the summer of 1996. Due, however, to a change in the anticipated financing of the planned improvements, this schedule has been delayed and has necessitated the need for this Specific Plan process. Through this Specific Plan process, the proposed project can now be phased, needed right of way for the entire project can be reserved and a formal financing methodology and process can be adopted by the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors. Project Description Page 3 Interstate 5/Rird Road Interchange and Road Specific Plan i i I I