Road Maintenance and Lighting County Service Areas Spheres of Influence: Santa Cruz County, California, 2015

Author(s):

Garcia, Paul and Price, Matt

Description:

This polygon shapefile depicts the sphere of influence (SOI) boundaries for county service areas in the County of Santa Cruz, California. A sphere of influence is defined as a plan for the probable physical boundaries and services area of a local government agency as determined by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). The Sphere defines the extent the City or Special District will probably expand to within the timespan of its current general plan. (pg 47 A Guide to LAFCO Procedures -- San Diego LAFCO 1995). LAFCO was created in 1963 to encourage orderly formation of local government agencies, preserve agricultural land resources and discourage urban sprawl. LAFCO is responsible for coordinating logical and timely changes in local governmental boundaries, conducting special studies that review ways to reorganize, simplify, and streamline governmental structure and preparing a sphere of influence for each city and special district within each county. Because counties often consist of large and diverse geographical areas, providing a consistent and adequate service level across all areas can be difficult. Residents of urban communities may want more services than those residing in rural areas. The County Service Area Law (Government Code §25210.1 et seq.) was created in the 1950’s to provide a means of providing expanded tailored service levels in areas where residents are willing to pay for the extra service. When a county service area exists, property owners will pay taxes and fees to the county service area instead of the county for the services provided. This layer is part of a collection of GIS data created for Santa Cruz County, California.The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Unit falls under the purview of the County of Santa Cruz Information Services Department. The GIS Unit serves all County departments and external customers and provides data on land, features and people of Santa Cruz County. Santa Cruz County encompasses 4 cities and approximately 265,000 people. This coverage can be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analyses of geospatial data.

Publisher:

County of Santa Cruz Information Services Department

Place(s):

Santa Cruz County (Calif.)

Subject(s):

Unincorporated areas, Special districts, County services, Spheres of influence, Municipal lighting, Roads, Boundaries, Utilities and Communication, and Transportation

Year:

2015

Held by:

Stanford

More details at:

http://purl.stanford.edu/dz907gg3631