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D. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS The Community Development Department staff report, the EIR, written comments, written and oral testimony at public hearings, and these findings and statement of overriding considerations and other information in the administrative record serve as the basis for the County's environmental determination. The Final EIR includes revisions to the Draft EIR,public comments and the County's responses. The detailed analyses of potential environmental impacts and proposed mitigation measures for the proposed Project are presented in the Draft EIR. Written comments and the County's responses, as well as some minor revisions to the impact and mitigation discussions, are provided in the Final EIR. Presented below are the environmental findings made by this Commission after its review of the documents referenced above, as well as the written and oral comments on the proposed Project presented at the Planning Commission public hearing. Factual discussion in this document summarizes the information contained in the EIR and the administrative record upon which this Commission bases its decision to certify the EIR and approve the project. The EIR prepared for the proposed Project evaluated four major environmental categories (Visual and Lighting, Transportation and Traffic, Air Quality and Climate Change, and Noise) for potential significant adverse impacts. Both project specific and cumulative impacts were evaluated. Of these four major environmental categories, the Commission concurs with the conclusions in the EIR that the issues and sub-issues discussed below can be mitigated below a significant impact threshold. For those issues that cannot be mitigated below a level that is less than significant, overriding considerations exist which make those impacts acceptable. In addition to the four major environmental categories addressed in the EIR,twelve other categories (Agriculture and Forestry, Biological Resources, Cultural Resources, Geology and Soils, Hazards and Hazardous Materials,Hydrology and Water Quality, Land Use Planning, Mineral Resources,Population and Housing, Public Services, Recreation, and Utilities and Public Facilities) were found to have no potential to result in a significant impact(Draft EIR, page 1-3). The Commission concurs with the conclusions on these categories and specifically in response to comments on these issues and finds that no significant impacts have been identified as to those categories identified and no further analysis is required. Differences of Opinion Regarding the Impacts of the Project In making its determination to certify the Final EIR and to approve the Project,the Commission recognizes that the Project involves a number of controversial environmental issues and that a range of technical and scientific opinion exists with respect to those issues. The Commission has acquired an understanding of the range of this technical and scientific opinion by its review of the Draft EIR,the comments received on the Draft EIR and the responses to those comments in the Final EIR, as well as testimony, letters, and reports regarding the Final EIR and its own experience and expertise in assessing environmental impacts. The Commission has reviewed and considered, as a whole;the evidence and analysis presented in the Draft EIR,the evidence and analysis presented in the comments of the Draft EIR, the evidence and analysis presented in the Final EIR, the information submitted on the Final EIR, and the reports prepared by the experts who prepared the EIR, consultants, and by staff, addressing those comments. 6