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4 Environmental Analysis 4.2 Agriculture and Forestry Resources 4.2 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY RESOURCES This section identifies and evaluates issues related to agriculture and forestry resources in the context of the Griffith Energy Storage Project (Project). It includes the physical and regulatory setting, the criteria used to evaluate the significance of potential impacts, the methods used in evaluating these impacts, and the results of the impact assessment. San Joaquin County(County) received scoping comments relating to agriculture and forestry resources from the California Department of Conservation (DOC), and those comments have been incorporated into the Draft EIR. 4.2.1 Existing Conditions 4.2.1.1 Agricultural Resources The Project site includes the 106-acre parcel proposed for the battery energy storage system (BESS), located within San Joaquin County, and the gen-tie corridor and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) Tesla Substation tie-in, located within Alameda County. The portion of the Project site in San Joaquin County is zoned as Agricultural General-160 by the San Joaquin County Zoning Code and designated as General Agriculture in the San Joaquin County General Plan (San Joaquin County 2016, 2022a). The portion of the Project site where the proposed gen-tie line and PG&E Tesla Substation tie-in would be located is within the jurisdiction of Alameda County and is zoned as Agriculture (A). The San Joaquin County portion of the Project site is also classified as Grazing Land and Farmland of Local Importance, while the Alameda County portion of the Project site is classified as Grazing Land and Other Land, under the DOC's Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program (FMMP; DOC 2022a). The existing PG&E Tesla Substation, where the Project's gen-tie line tie-in would be located, is classified as Urban and Built-up Land by the DOC's FMMP. The entire Project site is surrounded by land that is also classified as Grazing Land and Farmland of Local Importance, with the exception of a portion of land classified as Rural Residential Land (Other Land) located north of the Project site (DOC 2022a). Definitions of the DOC's farmland designations are provided in Section 4.2.2, Regulatory Setting. The Project site is currently used, and has been used for the last 10 years or more, as grazing land. The Project would also include development of a gen-tie line from the southwest corner of the battery energy storage facility to the PG&E Tesla Substation, which crosses into Alameda County. The area where the gen-tie line would be located is in the Alameda County Agricultural (A)zoning district and, under Alameda County's East County Area (as amended by "Measure D"), is in the Large Parcel Agriculture (LPA) general plan land use designation (Alameda County 2000, 2022). The San Joaquin County portion of the Project site is also included in a Williamson Act contract and classified as Non-prime Agricultural Land (DOC 2017). The Alameda County portion of the Project site is not included in a Williamson Act contract. The Williamson Act program, as related only to the San Joaquin County portion of the Project site, is discussed in Section 4.2.2 below. 4.2.1.2 Forestry Resources The Project site does not contain any land defined as forest land (as defined by Public Resources Code § 12220(g)), timberland (as defined by Public Resources Code § 4526), or land zoned Timberland Production (as defined by Government Code § 51104(g)). Griffith Battery Energy Storage Project 4.2-1 Tetra Tech/SCH 2022120675 Draft Environmental Impact Report August 2023