Gomes

*251 Steven L. Gomes, a homeowner in Mendocino County, appeals an adverse judgment rejecting his petition to invalidate an ordinance *252 of the Mendocino City Community Services District (the district) limiting the quantity of groundwater he may extract from his property. He contends that the statute authorizing the district to establish groundwater-management programs does not give it authority to impose extraction limits but that, if it does, the district failed to adopt the present program in accordance with the procedures specified in the statute. We conclude that the statute does authorize the imposition of extraction limitations but that the district did not adopt its program as the statute requires. The present ordinance therefore must be invalidated, without prejudice to re-adoption of such a program in accordance with the statutorily mandated procedures.

Factual and Procedural History

The town of Mendocino lies on a peninsula, bounded by cliffs. It lacks a source for a community-wide water system, so its residents depend on groundwater drawn from wells. In 1972, the district was created under the Community Services District Law ( Gov. Code, § 61000 et seq. ) for the…