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Ms. Leanne Mueller January 29, 2002 Page 2 of 6 Agricultural Setting of the Project If available, the Department's Important Farmland Maps, which define farmland according to soil attributes and land use, should be utilized. In particular, Prime Farmland, Unique Farmland and Farmland of Statewide Importance should be identified in terms of project acres directly converted or otherwise impacted and adjacent land impacted. If these maps are not available for the project area, we recommend using the Williamson Act's definition of prime agricultural land (Government Code §51201(c)). Conversion of farmland so identified is considered a significant impact. In addition, we recommend including the following items of information to characterize the agricultural land resource setting of the project: • Current and past agricultural use of the project area, including data on the types of crops grown, crop yields and farmgate sales values. • To help describe the full agricultural resource value of the soils of the site, we recommend the use of economic multipliers to assess the total contribution of the site's potential or actual agricultural production to the local, regional and state economies. State and Federal agencies such as the UC Cooperative Extension Service and USDA are sources of economic multipliers. For example, the UC Cooperative Extension study, Economic Impacts of Agricultural Production and Processing in Stanislaus County, may be applicable for this site. Project Impacts on Agricultural Land Project excavation will occur over a 60-year period. Such a lengthy time period involving such a large area of Prime Farmland may result in significant impacts to agricultural resources, notwithstanding any plan of reclamation. However, according to phone conversation with the County, the plan is to reclaim the land to open space, which would appear to be a conversion of Prime Farmland and a significant impact. The Department recommends including the following in the EIR: • Type, amount, and location of farmland conversion resulting directly and indirectly (growth-inducement) from project implementation. • Impacts on current and future agricultural operations; e.g., land-use conflicts, increases in land values and taxes, vandalism, etc. • Incremental project impacts leading to cumulatively considerable impacts on agricultural land. These impacts would include impacts from the proposed project as well as impacts from past, current and probable future projects. For a prospective analysis of farmland conversion impacts in the project's regional setting, see the 1995 University of California study (funded by the American Farmland Trust), Alternatives for Future Urban Growth in California's Central Valley., The Bottom Line. (Portions of this document are available on the Web at www.farmlandinfo.org.) To document the past agricultural land conversion, we recommend the Department of