Citizens

Citizens for Responsible Open Space and Californians for Property Rights (collectively, Citizens) petitioned the superior court to invalidate the annexation to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) of 144,000 acres along the coast of San Mateo County. They appeal from the judgment entered in favor of defendants San Mateo County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) and San Mateo County rejecting their petition. Citizens contend the annexation should be invalidated for numerous reasons: because public notice of the hearing to protest the annexation omitted a statement of reasons for the annexation and included an ambiguous map of the affected area, and because LAFCO delegated the task of verifying the written protests to a separate county department and assertedly determined incorrectly the number of registered voters residing in the annexation area. In a cross-appeal, LAFCO contends the trial court erred in finding that it improperly excluded protests by registered voters who did not include their residence address on the protest form. We reject Citizens’ claims, but agree with LAFCO that it properly excluded those protests that did not include a…