As sprawl-stopping agencies gain strength, California cities will have to curb their appetites.

Growth happens. And according to a state commission report released a year ago, if Californians don''t properly plan for the inevitable, the whole state''s destined to look like one seamless mass-produced housing tract peppered with big box chain stores.

The same study, issued by the state Commission on Local Governance for the 21st Century, postulates that California is and will continue to be the fastest growing state through the year 2025, and there''s no stopping it. Much of that growth, the report finds, will not come from migration but from a natural population boom, i.e., Californians bearing new little native Californians.

"Closing the gates will not solve the growth problem," the report warns.

The state has control centers for comprehensive regional planning within each county in the form of Local Agency Formation Commissions (LAFCOs). Neverthless, cities continue to gobble up agricultural lands, leaving concrete suburban wastelands in their wake. LAFCOs lack the muscle power to control swelling cities and channel urban expansion in the proper direction, or even to make the most basic challenges about resource availability.

That, however, is about to change. Thanks to new legislation, LAFCOs are growing teeth, and the state is getting serious about sprawl.

"[The new law] sends a real strong message," says Nick Chiulos, Monterey County LAFCO executive officer. "It''s really a mandate from the legislature to strengthen the role of LAFCO, and LAFCO''s main function is to prevent urban sprawl."

The state legislature created LAFCOs via the Cortese-Knox Act in 1963--by which time Los Angeles was already a recognized disaster. The agencies facilitate orderly growth within a county with the intent of minimizing urban sprawl and protecting prime agricultural lands and open space.

"LAFCOs were a reaction to a rather disorganized and aggressive annexation to cities and formation of new cities," Chiulos says. "There were no rules to regulate how that was done."

LAFCOs draw "spheres of influence," or probable growth boundaries, around cities, and annexation of new lands into cities must be consistent with those spheres of influence. A city wishing to add a piece of countryside, or an unincorporated community wishing to form itself into a city, needs approval from LAFCO first.

Under the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act, which was passed by the legislature in September and went into effect Jan. 1, annexation proposals will be evaluated with new criteria. LAFCOs will now have to consider the ability of a city to provide adequate services, the availability of water, and the extent to which a proposal will help a city provide its fair share of housing before approving an annexation.

"This now gives us more teeth," says Edith Johnsen, 4th District county supervisor and a LAFCO boardmember. "It makes the agency a real player in land use in a way it hasn''t been in the past."

In addition, LAFCOs will break their traditional ties with counties and become independent agencies, hopefully putting to rest any allegations of unfairness leveled by cities jilted out of annexation and the accompanying tax dollars. By July 1, LAFCOs are required to have hired their own full-time staffs, and their boards will become independent of the counties they serve.

Currently, LAFCO boards consist of two county supervisors, two city representatives and one public member-at- large. The agency''s staff often works for the county government as well. For instance, Chiulos works part-time for LAFCO and part-time for the county as principal administrative analyst.

"It''s been a concern, probably throughout the state, that the cities have felt that the county has undue influence on how LAFCO operates," says Chiulos, who says he plans to return to full-time work with the county after LAFCO hires a new executive officer.

The new law also encourages greater coordination between jurisdictions, requiring county governments to consult with adjacent cities before forging ahead with development plans. And it''s now incumbent upon LAFCO, when considering annexation, to give "great weight" to any agreement reached between a city and a county.

Last, funding of the agency will be shared among the county, cities and special districts (if they choose to participate) instead of being solely provided by the county. The Monterey County LAFCO operates on a $600,000 annual budget.

"It sounds nebulous right now, but the rationale is for the county to work with the cities and the cities to work with the county," Johnsen says. "It''s something that hasn''t happened in Monterey County in a long, long time."