This polygon shapefile depicts the 4 Fire Protection Districts in the County of Santa Clara, California. The specific services fire districts provide are: (from pg 75 A Guide to LAFCO Procedures San Diego LAFCO 1995) 1) Fire protection services; 2) Rescue services; and 3) Emergency medical services. Fire Protection Districts qualify as special districts in the state of California, usually independent of any city or county government and funded by a portion of property taxes and special tax assessment on properties within its Fire Protection District. This layer is maintained for the benefit of the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) of Santa Clara County. 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 for Santa Clara County, California.The Santa Clara County Planning Office is part of the Department of Planning and Development. Their primary function is to plan and regulate land use and development within the unincorporated portions of Santa Clara County. Other responsibilities include policy analysis, GIS services, research and technical assistance relating to land use, housing, environmental protection, historic preservation and demographics. The Geographic Information Services Department has taken on all those activities related to GIS data and GIS process and procedures that cross organizational boundaries. Santa Clara County encompasses 15 cities and approximately 1.7 million 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.