Mendocino Local Agency Formation Commission staff is recommending that commissioners conditionally approve a long-discussed water-boundary change that would fold most of Redwood Valley County Water District into the Mendocino County Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District.
The public hearing is set for Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. A certificate of filing issued Sept. 14 cleared File No. A-2025-05 for commission action. Staff asks the commission, acting as a CEQA responsible agency, to find adequate the Negative Declaration RRFC adopted (SCH No. 2025061147) and to adopt LAFCo Resolution 2026-27-04.
Under RRFC Resolution No. 25-07 and RVCWD Resolution No. 25-02, the proposal would annex the portion of the Redwood Valley service area not already inside RRFC, about 9,610 acres. It would not consolidate the districts or dissolve RVCWD. The stated purpose is to let Redwood Valley put water available under its Uniform Water Sale and Purchase Agreement with RRFC to beneficial use throughout its service area.
Today only about 200 acres of Redwood Valley sits inside RRFC. That overlap carries a purchase agreement for 328.85 acre-feet a year; staff says Redwood Valley has been using under 10 acre-feet of that contract in the overlap and relinquishing the rest so it can later buy surplus under a 1980 stipulated judgment. Annexation would make Redwood Valley an in-district RRFC customer for the whole territory and align RRFC’s boundary with its licensed place of use under State Water Resources Control Board license 13898, which authorizes 7,940 acre-feet a year from the East Fork Russian River and Lake Mendocino.
Redwood Valley serves about 1,105 equivalent dwelling units and 197 agricultural customers, with an estimated population of about 5,200. It has been under a 1989 court-ordered moratorium on new domestic connections and a 2001 board moratorium on irrigation connections. Staff concludes the annexation would not create enough new reliable supply to justify lifting either restriction, especially with drought pressure and expected cuts in Eel River diversions tied to Potter Valley Project decommissioning.
Mendocino County and RRFC approved zero-dollar property-tax exchange resolutions in July 2026, so existing tax shares would not change. No public comments had been received when the staff report was prepared. If approved, completion would be due within one year unless extended, and protest procedures under the --Hertzberg Act would follow.
State
Dave Cortese
State Senator · Democrat
Named once in this story.
Portrait: Official portrait
State
Stewart Knox
Secretary, California Labor and Workforce Development Agency
Named once in this story.
Sources & methodology
This report was written from the primary materials below. Links open at the original publisher.
Mendocino LAFCo staff report, Item 5a (Oct. 5, 2026 hearing) Mendocino LAFCo October 2026 agenda packetSee something we should correct? Read our corrections policy.