At its June 4, 2018 meeting, San Diego LAFCO approved a five-year study schedule calendaring municipal service reviews and sphere of influence updates beginning in 2018-2019. The underlying purpose of these cyclical planning documents is for LAFCO to independently assess the availability and adequacy of local government services relative to community needs, and take additional actions as appropriate. This includes drawing from the municipal service reviews to inform sphere updates and – if merited – initiate formations, consolidations, mergers, or dissolutions. The study schedule, notably, serves as an explicit and transparent direction in managing LAFCO’s core planning responsibilities as well as offer advance notice to local agencies and the general public in telegraphing these activities and soliciting their involvement; the latter of which helps address LAFCO’s direction to consider local conditions in performing the underlying duties. Further description of the study schedule regarding (a) emphasis, (b) scope, (c) sequence, and (d) implementation follows.

• Emphasis
  The study schedule emphasizes the preparation of municipal service reviews in determining whether to perform any sphere updates.

• Scope
  The study schedule includes a total of 30 municipal service reviews calendared over the 60-month period with coverage of all 101 local agencies directly subject to LAFCO's planning cycle.

• Sequencing
  The study schedule sequences the municipal service reviews to focus each year within a particular region and divided therein among subareas.

• Implementation
  Staff intends to follow a standardized format to guide the preparation of all of the municipal service reviews to help ensure one document is similar in content and orientation to another. This includes focusing on three central topics: growth and development issues; service demands and capacities; and financial standing.

Final Study Schedule - FY2019 to FY2023 Cycle