Santa Clara County LAFCO denies sprawl and upholds urban boundaries
by Kathy Switky

A project that could have opened the door to sprawl countywide was rejected in February when the Santa Clara County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) denied Morgan Hill's request to extend services outside its city limits for an urban-scale project located on County lands.

The Morgan Hill City Council had approved the extension of urban services (police, fire, water and sanitation) to a project proposed for lands outside of the city limits. The city's extension of these services outside the city's Urban Services Area - the boundary that defines where cities can allow urban development - was essentially an attempt to short-cut the legal process, which requires the city to first annex the land before providing these services.

Committee for Green Foothills, in collaboration with Santa Clara Valley Audubon and Greenbelt Alliance, acted quickly to successfully lobby LAFCO to uphold its policy designed to prevent just this sort of sprawl-inducing development from moving forward. By denying Morgan Hill's request, LAFCO upheld its goal of keeping urban-scale development inside city limits.

Shortcut would have violated decades of regional planning
Placing urban development outside of the city's service area is not only inappropriate - it would have set a dangerous precedent for the entire County. Approval of this project outside city limits would have undermined more than thirty years of managed growth in Santa Clara County, and opened the door to sprawl.

In addition, the project presented significant negative impacts. The project site is zoned for agriculture, and the State of California's Department of Conservation has identified it as "prime farmland" and "farmland of statewide importance". Extending urban services to the project site would not only impact surrounding agricultural operations - it would also encourage conversion of valuable farmland.

Committee asks LAFCO to uphold urban boundaries
Because the applicant proposed urban-scale development in the rural, unincorporated area of the County, the request went to the Local Agency Formation Commission, a local agency set up by the state to enforce city boundaries.

The Committee for Green Foothills and other environmental groups lobbied LAFCO to deny the request in accordance with LAFCO's goals: to encourage orderly urban boundaries, discourage urban sprawl, and preserve agricultural and open space lands.

Denial of project will discourage sprawl and protect open space
In February, the LAFCO Commissioners voted unanimously to uphold their policies preventing urban development from occurring outside city limits. With this vote, the Commissioners sent a clear message to local cities and developers that urban service areas will be enforced, and that development must follow appropriate protocol. By denying the request, LAFCO continues to limit development outside urban boundaries to a low-density, rural scale - and to protect the rural character of our County lands.