City of Hesperia v. Lake Arrowhead Cmty. Servs. Dist.

*739 Over the years since at least 1959, the Legislature has attempted to achieve a balance between the state's interest in allowing local agencies to produce, generate, store, and transmit water or electrical energy and the cites' and counties' control over local building and zoning. This appeal requires the court to consider whether a solar energy project proposed by a local agency, the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District (District), is exempt from-or whether the District must comply with-the zoning ordinances of the city in which the project is to be developed, the City of Hesperia (City).

Our analysis begins with the statutory requirement that, for purposes of a proposed solar energy project, a local agency must comply with the zoning *740 ordinances of the city and county in which the project's facilities are to be constructed or located. ( Gov. Code, § 53091, subd. (a) ; further undesignated statutory references are to the Government Code.) Then, as potentially applicable here, section 53091, subdivision (e) ( § 53091(e) ), and section 53096, subdivision (a) (§ 53096(a)), each provides the agency with an exemption for the location and construction of certain types of…