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that term is also used in CEQA Guidelines Section 15162(a)(2). Both the County Planning Department staff and the planning consultant retained to prepare the Initial Study concluded that there were no substantial changes with respect to the circumstances under which the 1994 Master EIR was certified, and the County finds that these conclusions constitute substantial evidence. Concerning seismic safety circumstances, since 1994 the Great Valley Fault Zone has been discovered to be one mile west of the project site. However,the mitigation measures identified in the 1994 Master EIR and in this Initial Study still apply to the project. According to the Planning Department, independent consultant and the Initial Study, seismic risks are not significantly greater based on this new information. The circumstances concerning cumulative impacts have not substantially changed. At the time the 1994 Master EIR vas certified,the County General Plan provided for three new town projects and two of these new towns (the new towns other than Mountain House) have been deleted from the General Plan. In addition,the projected increase in cumulative population has not been met during the period since the General Plan was adopted. Therefore, the cumulative population increases used as the base for determining cumulative impacts in the 1994 Master EIR over-projected both pace of population growth and extent of cumulative environmental impacts from such growth projections. According to both the Planning Department and the consultant retained to prepare the Initial Study, the conclusions of the 1994 Master EIR's cumulative impact section are not altered by the changes to the type or number of specific projects in the greater region;the Project's proportional contribution to cumulative impacts remains unchanged and is not more severe than the 1994 Master EIR anticipated. In addition, the entire Mountain House New Community as well as Neighborhood F have not been significantly altered and therefore the Project's proportional contribution to cumulative impacts remains unchanged. Since 1994 only minor adjustments to the Project build-out have been made. These minor adjustments are addressed at Table 3.3 of the Mountain House New Community Master Plan which addressed the Land Use Program. These adjustments were primarily made to account for road areas. The acreage decreased by 0.3 %. The total population decreased by 1.13 %. The number of jobs remained unchanged. The total number of residential units decreased by 1%. If anything,these minor adjustments would operate to reduce the potential environmental effects of the overall Mountain House Project. Concerning potential changed circumstances to cumulative traffic impacts,the County reviewed the most recent 2010 traffic model against the results of the 1994 Master EIR to determine if the cumulative traffic impacts and mitigation were still appropriate. The County staff concluded that regional traffic impacts were subject to a slight change. In some instances the regional traffic impacts increased and in some instances the regional traffic impacts decreased. However,the cumulative traffic impact did not become more severe than reported in the 1994 Master EIR. According to the County Public Works Department, using the 2010 traffic model to consider the cumulative traffic impacts to the Mountain House project and the Neighborhood F Project is a reasonable and valid engineering method to evaluate the potential cumulative traffic impacts of the Mountain 18