The people at Eastern Placer Future have been moving in the direction of municipal incorporation for some time now. They have been doing it the right way - carefully and cautiously, making sure to dot all the "i"s and cross all the "t"s, making their list and checking it twice, measuring twice and cutting once. A good example is how they are beginning their "official" Local Agency formation Commission (LAFCO) process by gathering signatures for a petition to Placer County LAFCO.

Under the LAFCO Law, two methods are available to initiate a city: (1) the legislative body of a city or special district may adopt a resolution requesting the procedure, or (2) voters or land-owners in the affected area may sign petitions requesting LAFCO to initiate the proceedings. Eastern Placer Future chose the petition route.

Signature gathering is no small task. For an incorporation process to be started by petition, the LAFCO Law requires such a petition to be signed by either:

• (a) Not less than 25 percent of the registered voters residing in the area to be incorporated, as determined by the commission pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 56375, or
• (b) Not less than 25 percent of the number of owners of land within the territory proposed to be incorporated who also own not less than 25 percent of the assessed value of land within the territory proposed to be incorporated, as shown on the last equalized assessment roll of the county.

Signature gathering is not an easy task at the Lake. First, like anywhere in California, voter turnout is, frankly, less than stellar. Turnout in presidential-election years tends to be higher than in midterm election years, but even then the turnout runs well below what it should be. Add to that the difficulty of gathering signatures from voters in the Tahoe area specifically. The housing problem there is well known. Rents are sky high and a lot of the jobs are seasonal. Many voters are renters who move around quite a bit and may not keep their registration address current.

For the proposed new city, which currently has almost 8600 voters, the LAFCO requirement meant about 2150 signatures were needed for the petition. A rule of thumb for political petition signatures in California is to get twice as many signatures as needed. However, Tahoe's Northshore has a "small town feel", wherein local people tend to know other locals. Eastern Placer Future was thus able to aim for a lower level of extra signatures that could be easily pre-verified by a third party before submission to Placer LAFCO. The signature-gathering process was conducted mostly by volunteers who showed up everywhere there were local events, meetings and the like. Quite a few signatures were also obtained by volunteers hanging out at the post offices and grocery stores as well as by knocking on doors. After a two-month process, the team has finally gotten the requisite number of signatures for the petition to LAFCO to incorporate the "Town of North Tahoe". 

The voters' signatures still have to be verified by the County's Elections Department, which has a reputation for being thorough and accurate. Eastern Placer Future expects its careful pre-verification efforts have reduced the risk of failure to something pretty small. If the Elections Department says some corrections are in order, or if more signatures are needed, it is anticipated that it won’t take long to make the revisions. Overall, then, Eastern Placer Future is nearly ready to submit its complete application to LAFCO. California (un)Incorporated wishes them every success as they begin the incorporation process!