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ti PREFACE San Joaquin County has determined that an Environmental Impact Report is required for a proposed General Plan Amendment for an area south of Tracy between Valpico Road, Fairoaks Road, MacArthur Drive, Linne Road, and Chrisman Road. Under the California Environmental Quality Act, the purpose of an Environmental Impact Report is to provide objective information to public decision makers and the general public regarding potential environmental effects resulting from project implementation. San Joaquin County can then institute methods of reducing adverse impacts or consider alternatives to the project. This Environmental Impact Report (EIR) has been prepared to conform to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) of 1970, as amended. Included in the amendments is the policy that the purpose of an EIR is to identify only the significant effects of a project on the environment, where significant effects are defined as "substantial adverse impact(s) on the environment." This EIA, therefore, discusses in detail primarily those impacts determined to have potentially significant or substantial adverse effects. The degree of specificity required in an Environmental Impact Report corresponds to the degree of specificity involved in the underlying activity. This EIR examines two scenarios: a specific proposal for a General Plan Amendment, rezoning, and development of a 26 acre parcel and the potential for similar development of the surrounding 384 acres. CEQA Guidelines Section 15146 states the following regarding the degree of specificity of an Environmental Impact Report: (a) An EIR on a construction project will necessarily be more detailed in the specific effects of the project, than will be an EIR on the adoption of a local General Plan or comprehensive zoning ordinance because the effects of construction can be predicted with greater accuracy. (b) An EIR on a project, such as the adoption or amendment of a comprehensive zoning ordinance or a local General Plan, should focus on the secondary effects expected to follow from the adoption, or amendment, but the EIR need not be as detailed as an EIR on the specific construction projects that might follow. Therefore, this EIR examines in more detail the specific proposal for the Trains, Brothers property and more generally the potential development of the surrounding area. The Resources Agency of California has adopted amendments to the Guidelines for Environmental Impact Reports, which incorporated the recent changes in CEQA. The EIR Guidelines allow the preparation of a focused EIR which addresses only significant project effects (Section 15143). The Initial Study prepared by San Joaquin County identified a number of areas in which the project could have significant effects on the environment, including land use and planning, agricultural economics, traffic, air quality, noise, hydrology and drainage, and public services and utilities. v