Adopted August 15, 1995

IT IS THE POLICY OF THE COUNTY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO TO:

1. Maintain a high quality and healthy environment for the people of San Luis Obispo County now and in the future;
   
2. Take actions necessary to protect, rehabilitate, and enhance the environmental quality of San Luis Obispo County;
   

3. Take actions that will provide the people of San Luis Obispo County with clean air and water, enjoyment of aesthetic, natural, scenic, and historic environmental qualities, and freedom from excessive noise;

4. Carry out the environmental review process in an efficient, expeditious manner in order to conserve the available financial, governmental, physical, and social resources with the objective that these resources may be better applied toward the mitigation and avoidance of significant effects on the environment;

5. Administer environmental review procedures, to the maximum extent feasible, to run concurrently with other required procedures;

6. Incorporate the information developed in individual environmental reports into a database which can be used to reduce delay and duplication of subsequent environmental reports;

7. Organize and write environmental documents in such a manner that they will be meaningful and useful to decision makers and the public;

8. Consider the involvement of the public in actions affecting the environment as a critical, essential, and indispensable element of the decision making process;

9. Not approve projects as proposed if there are feasible mitigation measures or feasible alternatives available that would avoid or lessen the significant adverse environmental effects of such projects. However, in the event that specific economic, social, or other conditions make infeasible such project alternatives or mitigation measures, individual projects may be approved in spite of one or more significant effects;

10. Evaluate projects to be carried out by the County at the same level of environmental review and consideration as private projects required to be approved by the County;

11. Prefer avoidance of adverse impacts over mitigation. However, if mitigation is necessary, on-site or off-site mitigation should be fully implemented;

12. Help prevent the elimination of the County's fish and wildlife species and preserve for future generations sustainable representations of the County's native plant and animal communities;

13. Give major consideration to preventing negative environmental effects while providing a decent home and satisfying living environment for every San Luis Obispo County resident