About Lafayette
Mission Statement: (Adopted February 28, 2022)
Lafayette’s vision is to be a welcoming, inclusive, safe, family-friendly city for residents and visitors alike, with excellent schools and a commitment to lifelong learning that respects and preserves its magnificent natural setting. We pursue this vision by engaging residents, community groups and business and property owners to work together with our city government to make Lafayette a highly desirable small-town community with a semi-rural ambiance that is guided by these principles:
- Value everyone
- Support environmental sustainability
- Build and maintain effective infrastructure
- Improve safety for all modes of travel
- Protect and enhance our parklands, trails, hillsides, ridgelines, open spaces and creeks
- Support a vibrant downtown
- Maintain a fiscally responsible and transparent city government that encourages volunteer involvement on committees and commissions
Lafayette is located on 15 square miles in Contra Costa County, one of nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area. The City was incorporated in 1968, although settlement of the area began in 1848.
Lafayette is noted for its high quality of life with top rated schools, low crime rate, small town downtown, clean air, mild climate and oak tree-studded hills. Located between Berkeley and Walnut Creek, Lafayette has its own Bay Area Rapid Transit station (BART) and is only a 25 minute BART ride from San Francisco.
Demographics