5 days Ago By Todd R. Hansen
FAIRFIELD — The Solano County LAFCO board this week approved a balanced $1.6 million 2025-26 budget in anticipation of agency activities ramping up over the next year. "We are gearing up because we know the coming years are going to be very busy; there is going to be a lot of activity in play," Rich Seithel, executive director of the Local Agency Formation Commission, said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
The commission action was taken on Monday. Seithel said five of the county's seven cities are looking at expansion, noting Vacaville, Dixon, Suisun City, Rio Vista and Fairfield. "There is conversations with five of the cities looking at growth .
.. It's premature for our process, but we are in conversations," Seithel said.
"That means sphere of influence and municipal service reviews," added Seithel, who discussed those topics as part of his report to the commission. He said in the interview, that municipal service reviews need to be completed because they provide information so the spheres of influence can be defined and mapped. Seithel emphasized, however, that LAFCO has not received any application for annexations.
"But there has to be some things in place," said Seithel, reiterating the need for municipal service reviews. "They help provide data for the sphere analysis." Of course, plenty of the talk is about California Forever, which has agreed to meet with Suisun City and Rio Vista officials about the prospect of annexing some of its properties into those cities.
LAFCO has received a 20-page letter from the local chapter of the Sierra Club opposing those annexations, emphasizing the need for infill development. While receipt of the letter was on the LAFCO agenda, Seithel said there was no discussion on the matter since it was only an informational item..
