Grand Jury Criticizes Local Agency Formation Panel

The local agency charged as a watchdog against urban sprawl weakened its own power when it gutted its guidelines last year, the Ventura County Grand Jury said Thursday.

Its report recommended that the Local Agency Formation Commission reinstate the standards, which call for detailed land-use studies by cities and developers as a requirement of defining their future growth boundaries.

The report also suggests that the commission was not fully informed when it voted 4-3 in February to approve Santa Paula’s request to expand its sphere of influence to include Adams and Fagan canyons northwest of the city, because it did not see the land-use studies.

The guideline deletions “suggest that a majority of the Ventura County LAFCO commissioners do not understand and appreciate their mandate under the [state] legislation establishing their agency,” the grand jury said in a report signed by Foreman Marvin J. Reeber.

Everett Millais, who became LAFCO’s executive officer after the Santa Paula decision, said his agency would review the agency’s criticisms and respond.

“I’m certainly respectful of the role of the grand jury,” Millais said. “But I’m disagreeing now, based on some factual things.”

The commission deleted the guidelines in part because it left the commission open to lawsuits by slow-growth advocates, Millais said.