LAFCO CLARIFIES BIGHORN-DESERT VIEW WATER DISTRICT SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

In a Service Review released this month, the County’s Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, made recommendations impacting the sphere of influence of agencies in the Homestead Valley communities of Landers, Johnson Valley, and Flamingo Heights with particular focus on the areas served by Bighorn Desert-View Water Agency. In the report, LAFCO staff recommends removing almost 14,000 acres of unoccupied public lands from the water agency’s sphere of influence and adding more than 11,000 acres of privately-owned, mostly occupied parcels abutting the Agency’s present boundaries. The areas recommended for the expanded service boundary primarily include properties now served by County Special Districts Service Area 70 W-1, some sparsely populated sections of Johnson Valley, and the parcels occupied by Gubler’s Orchids in Landers. The report went into some detail to explain that as a planning boundary, the sphere of influence does not change the orchid grower’s operation or use of its water which comes from private wells. For property owners who would move from Special Districts to Bighorn, the change, if approved, would represent a reduction in the rates they currently pay.