Annexation to Chula Vista Sets Record

Approval by voters of unincorporated Montgomery to annex the area to Chula Vista will add an estimated $3.2 million annually to the South Bay city’s sales and property tax revenues, city officials said Wednesday.

The annexation of the 2,300-acre community, bounded by Interstates 5 and 805, and L and Main streets in Chula Vista, was the largest single addition to a city ever approved in the State of California. It adds about 23,500 persons to Chula Vista, enabling the city to supplant Oceanside as the second most populous municipality in the county and the 23rd largest in the state.

City Clerk Jennie Fulasz said Chula Vista’s population, when the annexation is officially recorded Jan. 1 of next year, will be about 115,000.

Tuesday’s election marked the third attempt to annex Montgomery to Chula Vista; previous tries in 1979 and 1983 had been unsuccessful. Mayor Greg Cox, a longtime advocate of the annexation, said Montgomery residents “finally realized that remaining unincorporated was going to be a losing proposition in the long run.”

Cox said release of a study by the County of San Diego showing Montgomery residents were paying $900,000 more in fees and taxes to the county than they were receiving in return for services was the key to the overwhelming victory of the annexation proposal, which was supported by 62% of the community’s voters.

The infusion of tax revenue from Montgomery does not represent pure profit for Chula Vista--Cox said the city would hire 80 full-time employees to handle the additional residents, including 25 police officers. City employees Wednesday were studying the effect of the annexation on Chula Vista’s $30-million budget.

Edwin Storm, elected to the community’s first planning board, said increased police protection was another factor in the annexation’s approval. “Our coverage under the Sheriff’s Department has not been too good; it should improve under the city’s police force,” Storm said. “And, another good thing is that we won’t have to go clear down to the County Administration Center for licenses and building permits.”

In neighboring Imperial Beach, a controversial measure asking voters to approve a large card room downtown was rejected, rescinding an ordinance enabling such a business that was approved by voters last year.

A spokeswoman for the city said the card room was never built because voters, in approving the measure in 1984, stipulated that it must be built in conjunction with a large hotel, and a developer could not find a suitable location for the project.

It was the second defeat in three years for the card room, which also was turned down by voters in 1983, before the hotel was added to the proposal. The card room would have poured an estimated $500,000 a year into the financially strapped city’s coffers.