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Item No. 2 PC: 4-9-92 GP-89-11 Page 6 the General Plan Amendment. Critical to this discussion of contract cancellation is whether the Board of Supervisors can make all the legally required findings required for cancellation. This may prove to be troublesome, since the Mountain House DER notes that the City of Tracy also has much land available for development that is proximate to their city boundaries. Also, a survey of property owners adjoining the proposed new town indicated that several in Alameda County have filed Notices of Nonrenewal in anticipation of the project extending into Alameda County. Adjoining property owners in San Joaquin County are also likely to remove agricultural lands from operaton due to future land use conflicts occurring between urban uses at the project site and adjoining agricultural operations. The onus is on the project proponents as petitioners to the cancellation request to prove through the submission of substantial evidence that the findings required for cancellation can be made. PROPOSED LAND USES: The Mountain House new community envisions a development of complementary urban land uses that would result in a self-sufficient urban town of approximately 43,000 people. Land use designations would be distributed to theoretically allow a fully integrated town where all residents could be employed within the town boundaries if they so choose. However, competition for job generating land uses from other parts of the County and region may make creation of a true jobs/housing balance difficult in the short term. Housing product types and prices are planned by the proponent to be of a variety and scale so that they would be affordable for all of the jobs created. The Mountain House project includes a total of 15,338 dwelling units proposed on 2,335 acres. Of these, 14,582 units are low or medium density and will be developed primarily as single-family residential units. In addition, 756 units will be built in the high density range as multi-family attached units. Commercial uses are planned for 275 acres, and industrial uses take up 427 acres. A total of 260 acres are reserved for schools, with open space and recreation utilizing 814 acres. Lastly, 556 acres are needed for public utilities and roads. LAND USE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND MITIGATIONS: The loss of 4270 acres of agricultural land is an unavoidable, significant, adverse impact. The only effective mitigation is denial of the project. However, there are several partial mitigations that can be implemented to minimize the loss of the agricultural lands and to address future land use conflicts between adjoining agricultural lands and an urban community. These mitigations include:1 • Farmland mitigation fees. The developer could be required to pay a mitigation fee to the County or an appropriate agency (such as the S. J. Ag/OS Trust). • Imposition of significant buffer areas adjacent to agricultural lands. In the case of Mountain House, a minimum 500-foot-wide buffer is recommended along the western boundary. See Attachment B, C., for specific recommended language. 'Any mitigation measure followed by the initials 'SP' cannot be imposed until the Subsequent Plan stage.