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San Joaquin County Community Environmental Setting,Impacts,and Mitigation Measures Development Department Agricultural Resources,Land Use,and Planning -" 30 vertical feet. Since all usable land will be reclaimed as farmland,the County considers that the project will not result in a loss of farmland, although the acreage usable for farming may be reduced by the area of steep pit slopes where the slopes are too steep to be usable for agriculture. The floor of Stage I,at reclamation, is estimated to be approximately 12 acres and the floor of Stage II, at reclamation, is estimated to be approximately 18 acres. The reclamation plan proposes to backfill Stage III of the North Pit to groundwater level and develop an approximately 25-acre agricultural pond. As an alternative, identified in the reclamation plan,the operator may elect to — backfill this area with imported overburden and soil and return the pit floor to cultivation. The proposed agricultural pond would be used to support reclaimed agricultural uses of the site,as well as store water,receive irrigation return flows, and provide habitat. The proposed pond is considered accessory to the reclaimed agricultural use of the site, and therefore the County considers the pond to be agricultural use as well. _ The Project will result in only temporary loss of agricultural use of lands in active mining. As agricultural use will continue on lands not in active mining, and all usable lands will be reclaimed to agricultural uses, the project will have a less-than-significant impact related to conversion of farmland. No mitigation is required. Impact LU-2: Result in a Growth-Inducing Action by Encouraging Additional Requests for Related Uses or Set a Significant Land Use Precedent in the Area (Less than Significant) _ As described in Chapter 2,"Project Description,"this area of the County is identified in the San Joaquin County General Plan as containing significant sand _ and gravel aggregate resources, and the site is classified as MRZ-3 by the DOC. There are several other existing and planned quarry sites located in the project vicinity (see Figure 2-5),including the Teichert Aggregates Vernalis quarry,the DSS Traina quarry,the Granite Construction Vernalis quarry, the West Coast Aggregates quarry,and the proposed RMC Pacific Materials quarry. The Applicant has joined with the mine operators identified above to form the Vemalis Aggregate Producers Group for the purpose of funding the engineering design and environmental analysis of a proposed SR 132/Bird Road interchange (Omni-Means 2005). The County and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)have determined that the interchange would need to be in place before aggregate production in the project area can be expanded over current levels. This project is currently under review by the County and Caltrans, who would have discretionary approval of a new interchange project. At the time of preparation of this FIR,the proposed construction year for the interchange was estimated as 2007. DeSilva Gates Quarry Project — Draft Environmental Impact Report 3.B-10 AS 05105.05