Tiburon Sphere of Influence Staff Report

To:	PLANNING COMMISSION
From:	SCOTT ANDERSON, PLANNING DIRECTOR
Subject:	SPHERE OF INFLUENCE UPDATE BY MARIN LOCAL AGENCY FORMATION COMMISSION (LAFCO)
Date:	APRIL 19, 2002

The Marin Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) has begun its review and update of the "sphere of influence" for public agencies in southern Marin County. These reviews are mandated by state law.

The government code defines a "sphere of influence", also known as SOI, as follows:

A plan for the probable physical boundaries and service area of a local agency, as determined by the commission [LAFCO].

The SOI review will include all municipalities and special districts such as sanitary districts, fire districts, water districts, community service districts, recreation districts, and so forth. The list (see Exhibit 1) does not include school districts. Criteria that LAFCO must consider in the SOI review are attached as Exhibit 2. Town Staff has provided Marin LAFCO with all materials requested to begin its work on the SOI update. Marin LAFCO has indicated that it would appreciate any comments or suggestions the Town may have regarding its SOI boundary. By happenstance, the LAFCO SOI review coincides with the Town’s General Plan update process. This is fortuitous in that the Town has traditionally attempted to coordinate its "Planning Area" boundary with LAFCO’s SOI boundary.

SOI determinations are important to some municipalities in that properties included within the SOI are easier and faster to annex. In addition, the Marin County Community Development Agency will sometimes give greater weight to comments made on development proposals by a city, if the proposed development is within the city’s SOI.

The Town of Tiburon’s current SOI is shown on the attached Exhibit 3. Please note that this boundary is essentially coterminous with the Tiburon Planning Area boundary. Both include nearly all unincorporated areas on the Tiburon Peninsula east of U. S. Highway 101, including all of Strawberry, most of Ring Mountain, and all of the Paradise Drive unincorporated areas. A portion of Ring Mountain facing Corte Madera is located within that municipality’s SOI, but is irrelevant for planning purposes as Ring Mountain is set aside as permanent open space.

The 1989 General Plan, in Goal LU-D, calls for annexation of all unincorporated areas with the Town of Tiburon SOI. These unincorporated areas are divided into three sub-areas set forth in Land Use Element Policies LU-5 through LU-7 (see Exhibit 4).

However, since 1989, there has been a considerable shift in the community and political attitude toward annexation of the entire SOI, mostly with respect to Strawberry.

Since adoption of the 1989 General Plan, Strawberry has almost completely "built out", under the guidance of the Strawberry Community Plan, adopted by the Marin County Board of Supervisors in 1973 and amended in 1982. Due to the existence of this adopted Community Plan, the Town of Tiburon’s influence over development in the Strawberry Area has been negligible over the past 30 years. An attempt by the Town to annex the Bay Vista area in 1987 failed due to lack of interest by the property owners in that area. More recently, the Strawberry community has considered (and dropped) discussions regarding annexation to Tiburon, as well as pursuit of incorporation.

Moreover, in recent years the Tiburon Town Council has indicated that annexation of Strawberry would fundamentally change the character of the Town of Tiburon, as well as impact its ability to provide services to its existing citizenry. Westward expansion of the Town of Tiburon has been effectively halted by the Town Council since the annexation of the Cypress Hollow/Rancho Drive/Barn Road area in 1998.

Marin LAFCO staff is very aware of these trends, and is already considering the deletion of Strawberry from the Town of Tiburon SOI. In such a case, Strawberry would likely end up in no municipality’s SOI, which is copasetic under LAFCO law.

With respect to large undeveloped properties, there are two sizeable parcels remaining in the Strawberry area that could yield residential subdivisions (see Exhibit 5). The 17.4-acre Pan-Pacific Ocean property and the 6.1-acre Oloumi property are both zoned 0.2 units per acre by the County, but considerably higher densities are possible under the Strawberry Community Plan and Marin Countywide Plan (up to 1.0 unit per acre for Oloumi and up to 1 unit per acre or more for Pan-Pacific).

3. Draw a line somewhere in between Options #1 and 2 above, focusing on a logical extension of the Tiburon Town limits with respect to provision of Town services

Staff recommends either option 2 or 3, and will provide maps at the meeting showing possible SOI boundaries.

Both of these sub-areas (Paradise Cay & Vicinity and Paradise Drive Area South of Trestle Glen) are likely to remain within the Tiburon SOI following LAFCO’s review. Town Staff believes that this is appropriate, and recommends no changes to the SOI boundary for these areas.