public static Region createLocalRegion(String regionName) throws RegionExistsException {

    AttributesFactory attr = new AttributesFactory();

    attr.setScope(Scope.LOCAL);
    Region localRegion = createCache().createRegion(regionName, attr.create());

    return localRegion;
  }
This method creates a local region with all the default values. The cache created is a loner,
so this is only suitable for single VM tests.
geode-junit/src/main/java/org/apache/geode/internal/cache/PartitionedRegionTestHelper.java