Placer County Local Agency Formation Commission v. Nevada County Local Agency Formation Commission

This case is a turf battle between neighboring local agency formation commissions (LAFCO’s) under the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization Act of 2000 (Gov. Code, § 56000 et seq. (the Act)).

“[LAFCO’s] oversee local agency boundary changes, including the incorporation and disincorporation of cities, the formation and dissolution of most special districts, and the consolidation, merger, annexation, and reorganization of cities and special districts. Each county in California has a LAFCO. In California, 58 LAFCOs are working with nearly 4,000 government agencies in 58 counties, 477 incorporated cities, and 3,000-plus special districts.

“LAFCOs have been described as watchdogs, guarding ‘against the wasteful duplication of services that results from indiscriminate formation of new local agencies or haphazard annexation of territory to existing local agencies.’ [Citation.] The primary objectives of LAFCOs are as follows: (1) to facilitate orderly growth and development by determining logical local agency boundaries; (2) to preserve prime agricultural lands by guiding development away from presently undeveloped prime agricultural preserves; and (3) to…