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State of California THE RESOURCES AGENCY OF CALIFORNIA emorandum 0 : Mr. Douglas P . Wheeler N Date : March 26, 1992 Secretary for Resources o Subject: Draft Environmental Impact Ms . Kerry Sullivan �¢+ UJ �_. p act Re port (DEIR) San Joaquin County w C/)W for the Buckeye Ranch Community Development Dept. W_ Q Subdivision 1810 E. Hazelton SCH #91012103 Stockton, CA 95205 rrom Department of Conservation—Office of the Director _ The Department of Conservation has reviewed the County of San Joaauin' s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposed "Buckeye" project, a private, gated community of 26 homesites, an 18 hole golf course, a private equestrian center, and a 720 acre nature preserve on a total of 870 acres currently enrolled in the Williamson Act . The Williamson Act contract is now proposed for cancellation. In addition, the site is surrounded by land that is currently in agricultural production with irrigated pasture to the north and east of the site and vineyards to the northeast, east and south. The project' s proponents have abandoned plans to propose this project as a compatible use, and now propose cancellation of the Williamson Act contract . The Department of Conservation has not yet received a copy of the cancellation petition as required by Government Code §51284 . With this limitation in mind, we offer these preliminary comments on the proposed cancellation as discussed in the DEIR. As a general rule, lands can be withdrawn from the Williamson Act only through the nine year process of non-renewal. Cancellation is reserved for unusual, "emergency" situations . (See Sierra Club v. City of Hayward (1981) 28 Cal. 3d 840, 852- 853 . ) The Supreme_ Court has stated that cancellation is not appropriate where the objectives served by cancellation could be Al served by nonrenewal . (Sierra Club, at 855 . ) Therefore, completion of contract nonrenewal should be fully evaluated as a project alternative in-the Final EIR. This discussion should include analysis of whether the objectives of the proposed cancellation could be met through nonrenewal. The DEIR contains a cursory analysis of the Government Code §51282 cancellation findings . The Department' s concerns are provided in regard to the following specific findings . (b) (2) The cancellation is not likely to result of adjacent lands from acricultural use . The DEIR' s analysis is based on a poll of neighboring land owners . This should be expanded to also consider the effect of A2 increased traffic, agricultural conflicts as noted on pg 4 . 1-11, III-3