Welcome to the Santa Cruz Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) web site.

The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) was created by State law in 1963 to regulate the boundaries of cities and special districts. There is a LAFCO in each of the 58 counties of California. The objectives of LAFCO are:

• to encourage efficient service areas for services provided by cities, counties, and special districts;

• to guide urban development away from prime agricultural lands and open space resources; and

• to promote orderly growth and discourage urban sprawl.

The Commission in Santa Cruz County is comprised of seven members: two city council members chosen by the mayors of the cities in the county, two county supervisors chosen by the Board of Supervisors, two special district board members chosen by the twenty-four independent special district board chairpersons in the county, and a public member chosen by the other members of LAFCO.

As a public agency, LAFCO discusses and acts upon its business monthly in open public meetings. We welcome your interest and participation in the important matters under study by LAFCO.

Grand Jury	The 2008-9 Santa Cruz County Grand Jury has titled one section of their final report "Who is Watching Our Special Districts?". State law requires LAFCO to respond to the findings and recommendations of this section. Link: http://www.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/grandjury/ GJ2009_final Special_Districts.pdf
Next Meeting	The next LAFCO meeting is scheduled for August 5, 2009.
Emergency Cell Phone Notification (Reverse 911)	The Santa Cruz Consolidated Emergency Communications Center, which dispatches 911 emergency police, fire, and ambulances in Santa Cruz County, has a new service. In cases of imminent threat, it now has the capability to make reverse 911 calls to cell phones. In the case of an imminent threat, the Communications Center would make an automated call to cell phones registered to threatened addresses. A sample message might be "At 9:30 on Monday morning, a mandatory evacuation has been ordered for all homes on XZY Road due to threat from the wildfire. " To utilize this service, cell phone users must register with the Communications Center: --Link to Communications Center Registration