Laguna Niguel Service District Wins Key Panel Vote After Late Support by Riley

Aided by a last-minute letter of support from county Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, a group of Laguna Niguel residents who want to form a communitywide services district this year won a key battle Wednesday at the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission.

The five-member commission went against its own staff’s recommendation and unanimously approved a measure that would allow Laguna Niguel residents to vote in the June 3 election on forming a services district.

The proposal now goes back to the Board of Supervisors, where it originated last year, for another public hearing next month.

Would Take Over Duties

If Laguna Niguel voters approve the measure in June, the community, beginning in July, would assume responsibility for street-sweeping, landscaping, recreation and street-lighting services now provided by the county. It would also retain about $1.3 million in locally generated property taxes that otherwise would help finance such countywide services as fire protection and libraries.

Community services districts are often called “junior cities” because they can provide many, but not all, of the services of a full-fledged city and are often an intermediate step toward incorporation. They do not receive sales tax revenues as cities do, but they may levy fees or assessments to pay for specific services.

Last November, Mission Viejo became the first large chunk of southern Orange County to form its own services district since the Board of Supervisors cut spending for services to unincorporated communities early last year.

“We accomplished what we wanted,” said Robert Morrison, chairman of a Laguna Niguel governance committee that recommended that the community adopt the services district concept. “We thought they might deny it, but LAFCO was aware of their responsibility.”

Opponents of the measure, who submitted petitions signed by 1,437 residents asking that the commission either vote down the plan or exclude their mostly coastal neighborhoods from the proposed services district, were surprised and angered by the commission’s vote. Their spokesman at the meeting, John Bulleit, pointed his finger straight at Riley.

“You saw the democratic process at work, all right,” Bulleit said. “The process apparently is not five commissioners at the table but the supervisor in the front row. As recently as 24 hours ago, we had (commission executive director Richard) Turner’s recommendation, which was on track. But this is how things happen. The rug was pulled out from under us for a deal.”

Riley’s letter arrived at the commission late Tuesday, Turner said, and was delivered to the five commissioners--Supervisors Roger R. Stanton and Ralph B.Clark among them--Wednesday. The letter, noting that “the opinion for a separate coastal CSD and/or a delay in the process is in the minority,” asked the commission to allow Laguna Niguel residents “to express their desire through the voting process in June.”

The commission heard public testimony on the issue last month but delayed a vote until this week’s meeting to allow the community more time to reach a consensus. The Laguna Niguel Community Council has since reaffirmed its support for a June vote, but homeowner associations in the coastal neighborhoods, some of which favor forming a separate coastal services district, wrote letters opposing it. Turner, saying that the community was still in disagreement over what the district’s boundaries should be, recommended that the commission deny the reorganization, which was proposed by the Board of Supervisors last year.

‘Second-Class Citizens’ Concern

After the meeting, Riley said he had been contacted by inland Laguna Niguel residents concerned that dividing the community in two would make them “second-class citizens if they didn’t have a coastal address.”

“It seems to me that the best thing to do would be to let the people go to the ballot,” Riley said. “I don’t see why anyone should have anything against that.”

But Paul Christiansen, a Laguna Niguel Community Council member who has opposed forming a services district because of uncertainty over liability insurance availability, predicted a “full-scale battle between those who want to be part of a CSD and those who don’t. Unless the liability insurance question is solved, there is going to be a hellcat fight.”

Insurance brokers have told the community council that they could not even provide a quote on liability insurance rates until after the services district was formed, Christiansen said, and there was no guarantee that a new district could obtain insurance at any cost.

Bulleit said residents in the “southern,” or coastal, Laguna Niguel neighborhoods--on the average older and wealthier than their inland neighbors--oppose joining a communitywide services district because of “different demographics and interests.” Each area might have its own ideas on how to spend recreation funds, Bulleit said, but because more voters live in the inland neighborhoods, “the (services district board of directors) would be dominated by people in the north. And they will have the authority of creating additional assessments without putting it to a vote.”

MP, GUS KELLER / Los Angeles Times