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Administrative Draft Environmental Impact Report Gill Medical Center Project 4.13 LAND USE AND PLANNING This section describes existing land uses on and near the project site. This section also describes plans and regulations pertaining to land use management in the project area and evaluates project consistency with relevant land use plans, policies and regulations and addresses project compatibility with adjacent land uses. 4.13.1 Environmental Setting 4.13.1.1 Regional Setting San Joaquin County is in a geographically diverse region with the peaks of the Sierra Nevada framing its eastern region, while its western portion includes the San Joaquin Valley floor,which is extensively cultivated. Unincorporated land accounts for about 90 percent (822,000 acres) of land in the county, and agriculture is the predominant use in the unincorporated area, totaling about 686,109 acres (83.2 percent of the unincorporated county). The second largest land use, in total acreage of the unincorporated area, is residential land, with about 40,410 acres in this use. Much of this unincorporated residential acreage is concentrated at the edges of existing cities and in urban and rural communities within the County. Figure 4.13-1. San Joaquin County Communities illustrates the areas of incorporated cities and the land uses within the unincorporated areas. In addition to being a center of agricultural production, the County also is the population and employment center of the northern San Joaquin Valley, serving as a warehousing and distribution center. Cities and urbanized areas are generally located in the center of the county, along Interstate 5 and State Route 99, and in the southwest portion of the county in Tracy between 1-580 and 1-205 (Figure 4.13-1). The multiple highway corridors make the county a "transportation hub," especially in conjunction with the rail corridors and the Port of Stockton where large cargo ships can dock. West of the urbanized development, in the Delta, is agricultural use, with a variety of irrigated row crops. To the east of the development corridors, orchards,vineyards, and grazing lands are the predominant agricultural uses. Grazing land encompasses large portions of the northeast and southwest corners of the county. In addition to the agricultural and residential land uses mentioned above, public and quasi-public land uses make up about 1.1 percent of the total County acreage.These lands include airports, cemeteries, hospitals, landfills, schools, public utilities, military facilities and other government-owned land. For example, about 6,000 acres of federally owned land are in the Tracy Planning Area and 3,000 acres of land owned by the East Bay Municipal Utility District are in the eastern portion of the County. Commercial and industrial lands also make up about 1.0 percent of the total County acreage. After agriculture (75 percent of the county's overall acreage), the seven incorporated cities make up the next largest portion of the county's acreage, capturing about 10 percent of the entire county. Most urban development in the county over the past 20 years has occurred as a result of cities annexing land for development (San Joaquin County 2016). Land Use and Planning 4.13-1 October 2021