Habitat & Watershed Caretakers v. City of Santa Cruz

*1283 Opinion

Appellant Habitat and Watershed Caretakers (Habitat) challenges the trial court’s denial of its mandate petition. Habitat’s petition contended that respondent City of Santa Cruz (the City) had failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.). The City had certified an environmental impact report (EIR) for a project to seek an amendment of the City’s sphere of influence (SOI) to include an undeveloped portion of the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), campus known as “North Campus” so as to permit the City to provide extraterritorial water and sewer services to proposed new development in North Campus-.

An SOI is “a plan for the probable physical boundaries and service area of a local agency, as determined by the [local agency formation commission].” (Gov. Code, § 56076.) The Legislature has vested each county’s local agency formation commission (LAFCO) with the power and duty to “approve with or without amendment, wholly, partially, or conditionally, or disapprove” a city’s request for an SOI amendment. (Gov. Code, § 56428, subd. (e).) LAFCO’s authority over a city’s SOI is guided by, among other…