This polygon shapefile depicts boundaries of the Resource Conservation District (RCD) in the County of Santa Cruz, California. An RCD may be formed for the control of runoff, prevention or control of soil erosion, development and distribution of water and improvement of land capabilites. (from pg 71 A Guide to Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) Procedures - San Diego LAFCO 1995). Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) are Special Districts of the state of California, set up under California law to be locally governed agencies with their own locally appointed or elected, independent boards of directors. California RCDs implement projects on public and private lands and educate landowners and the public about resource conservation. RCDs are authorized under Division 9 of the Public Resources Code. LAFCO was created in 1963 to encourage orderly formation of local government agencies, preserve agricultural land resources and discourage urban sprawl. LAFCos are responsible for coordinating logical and timely changes in local governmental boundaries, conducting special studies that review ways to reorganize, simplify, and streamline governmental structure and preparing a sphere of influence for each city and special district within each county. This layer is part of a collection of GIS data created for Santa Cruz County, California. The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Unit falls under the purview of the County of Santa Cruz Information Services Department. The GIS Unit serves all County departments and external customers and provides data on land, features and people of Santa Cruz County. Santa Cruz County encompasses 4 cities and approximately 265,000 people. This coverage can be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analyses of geospatial data. County of Santa Cruz Information Services Department. (2015). Resource Conservation District: Santa Cruz County, California, 2015. Santa Cruz County, California. Available at http://purl.stanford.edu/tr152kw3179. GIS Layer Number = 7E/ The resource conservation district consists of the entire County of Santa Cruz with the exception of the Cities of Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, and Watsonville. These data were compiled from many different sources; therefore, the accuracy of the individual layers varies significantly, and some layers do not align exactly with others. In the urban areas, data are generally accurate within five to ten feet of their true geographic coordinates, but in the rural areas, data may be accurate to only within three hundred feet. With these limitations, the County of Santa Cruz disclaims any responsibility for the accuracy or correctness of this data. This disclaimer is exclusive and in lieu of any warranties, fitness for particular purpose, and/or any other type of warranty, whether expressed or implied. This layer is presented in the WGS84 coordinate system for web display purposes. Downloadable data are provided in native coordinate system or projection.
