Agency is becoming environmental policing organization and
overstepping the bounds of its authority
LAFCO isn’t a comedy club, and the latest move by the Local Agency Formation Commission in Santa Clara County is no laughing matter. It’s a flat-out political power grab that essentially would usurp the authority of our City Council to make land-use decisions for our city’s future.
LAFCO was created by the state legislature to oversee the boundaries of cities and special districts to discourage urban sprawl. An example of bad planning LAFCO was formed to prevent: San Jose’s linear annexation of both sides of what was then a busy Monterey Highway to claim the tax revenue from gas stations and businesses. Outrageously poor planning. A clear money-hungry move that should have been stopped.
Unfortunately, LAFCO – like so many government agencies – is no longer content with the more passive role of oversight and common-sense veto assigned to it. Rather, it is seeking to become the 1,000-pound gorilla that answers only to itself. LAFCO’s thirst for power is seemingly insatiable, and if the latest calculated political move succeeds, Gilroy’s City Council will not only have to go before LAFCO on two bended knees before any annexation could occur, but the landowners and/or developers would have to
It’s unreasonable, and if LAFCO ignores the pleas from the cities, the housing industry and landowners and does pass the new “mitigation” policy it should be swiftly challenged in court.
LAFCO has overstepped its bounds and its inability to listen, compromise and take reasonable positions has turned it into an activist environmentalist policing agency rather than a vanguard for good planning.
Perhaps litigation is the only way to halt the agency’s venture into what is akin to judicial activism. South County, where the remaining undeveloped land is, is the prime target of LAFCO’s latest policy proposals. Our Councils, Gilroy and Morgan Hill, are not wild-eyed pro-development rogues. There is order and reason to our growth, and what we do not need is “land-use activism” from a group that is not accountable to the voters here.
The City of Gilroy has adopted an agriculture-land mitigation policy. LAFCO is not responsible for creating, amending or enforcing that policy. The City of Gilroy’s leaders are accountable to the voters here.
LAFCO needs to back off, or maybe the state legislature should consider abolishing the organization.
