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San Joaquin County Community Other CEQA Considerations Development Department additional quarry operation in this area of the County. The proposed Project would introduce several prominent new visual elements into the viewshed,and the aesthetics of the site would be altered during operations from the existing — agricultural character to the character of an aggregate extraction and processing facility. However,the change in views of the site is not anticipated to result in substantial — degradation of the aesthetics of the project site, such that the Project would contribute to an overall degradation in the visual appearance of the area,because the proposed quarry operation would be of similar size and duration as the other existing quarries in the vicinity. The Project includes construction of perimeter berms and implementation of a landscaping plan that would reduce the cumulative contribution of the Project to overall aesthetic impacts. — Implementation of the Project-specific mitigation measure discussed in Chapter 3.A would further reduce the Project's visual impacts by requiring that the operator develop and implement a nighttime lighting plan prior to nighttime operations at the site. Further, the Project includes a reclamation plan for the site that would occur in — stages, concurrent with mining operations. With final reclamation of the site,a total of 165 acres would have been reclaimed to agricultural use(Figure 2-6). As site operations progress through the project stages,the previously mined areas _ would be reclaimed to support an agricultural end use,consistent with the existing agricultural uses of the site. The reclamation plan does not identify a specific type of agricultural end use because this would be too speculative over the 40-year projected operating life of the quarry. The proposed Project's contribution to aesthetic impacts would be less than cumulatively considerable. — Land Use and Planning and Agricultural Resources Impact CE-2: Cumulative Displacement of Existing or Proposed Land Uses (Cumulatively Considerable) Several existing and planned quarry sites are located in the project vicinity (Figure 2-5), including the Teichert Aggregates' Vernalis quarry,the DSS Traina — quarry,Granite Construction's Vernalis quarry,West Coast Aggregates' quarry (QX 86-2), and RMC Pacific Materials proposed site. These other quarry projects are separated from the proposed Project; therefore,there would be no — cumulative effects on adjacent land uses because the proposed Project has no lands in common with these quarries. However,the other mining projects do involve displacement of existing or proposed land uses(primarily agricultural — production)because they have created, or will create, mined slopes and/or ponds. Existing land uses on sites proposed for mining include agricultural uses and undisturbed open space containing native vegetation. The Project would — contribute to this cumulative impact. No feasible mitigation exists that would DeSilva Gates Quarry Project — Draft Environmental Impact Report 5-4 AS 051D&M