Garden Grove : Voters Will be Asked to Rule on Annexation Plan

The city’s yearlong battle to annex 14 acres of unincorporated county land west of Brookhurst Avenue between 11th and 13th streets won’t be decided until November, when the 28 registered voters living in that area will be asked whether they would like to become residents of Garden Grove.

City officials thought they had managed to avoid a four-month wait and the cost of an election when a protest filed by the majority landowner in the area, Lee Johnson, was withdrawn last week. But eight of the 28 voters--six of them from a 13th Street apartment complex--submitted protests to the city; annexation law requires an election if more than 25% register their opposition.

County officials persuaded Johnson to withdraw his protest but Garden Grove has a policy against such involvement, Jerry Blum, city planning manager, said. “We will not go out and coerce anybody one way or the other,” he said.

Blum said two developers in the area, one planning condominiums and the other an apartment complex, will pay for part of about $200,000 in improvements on the land, including the extension of Kerry Street and the installation of new water and sewer lines. The county has pledged $90,000 and the city will pay about $37,000 for the project.