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The Community Development Department has reviewed the pre -application and offers the following comments: INTERIM ZONING ORDINANCEAND SPECIFIC PLAN The project site is located between the Mountain House New Town, Patterson Pass Industrial Park and the City of Tracy. Development of the project site and the Cordes Ranch Business Park site would result in the conversion of approximately 1422 acres of agriculturally designated land to urban uses. Such development would effectively link the community of Mountain House and the City of Tracy. Given the extreme growth pressures in this area of the County and the need to look at the area comprehensively, the Community Development Department may prepare an Interim Zoning Ordinance, for approval by the Board of Supervisors, pursuant to Government Code Section 65858, while a General Plan study and a Specific Plan are prepared for the area between Mountain House and Tracy. The actual boundaries of the study area have yet to be determined, and will be fine-tuned during the next few weeks. Development of this area raises several policy issues, including the potential need for community separators (i.e. greenbelts) to maintain separate identities for Mountain House and Tracy. Additionally, the creation of an additional 194 acres of commercial and industrially designated land may not be warranted in this area given the availability of existing commercially and industrially designated land in Mountain House and Tracy. Approval of this request for additional industrial and commercial acreage may erode the economic viability of existing industrial and commercial land in the Mountain House New Town, with resulting adverse financial impacts upon San Joaquin County. GENERAL PLAN POLICY ISSUES The General Plan 2010 contains various objectives, implementing measures and policies pertinent to the proposed General Plan Amendment. Growth Accommodation Objective No. 3 (Volume I, p. IV -4) "To minimize the effect on agricultural lands and other environmental resources while providing for orderly growth". • This proposed project will result in the loss of 194 acres of prime farmland. There are three types of soil on site: Capay clay 0-2% slope, capay clay 2-5% slope, and Stomar clay loam. All are designated as prime, Class II agricultural soils. Growth Accommodation Policy No. 5 (Volume I, p. IV -5) "Development shall be orderly and compact". • This project and the Cordes Ranch Business Park project will expand the boundaries of the urban community of Tracy into an agricultural area. This may also serve as the impetus for additional requests for urban land use designations in the general area between Tracy and Mountain House, particularly if urban services are extended