Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : GOVERNMENT : Mission Viejo Takes Step Toward Putting Cityhood Issue on Ballot

Mission Viejo residents may have the opportunity to vote on forming a city within their planned community later this year.

The Mission Viejo Community Services District voted 5-0 Monday night to submit an application for reorganization as a city to the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission. The commission probably will consider the application this spring, and if it is approved, the incorporation question could be put to Mission Viejo voters on the November ballot.

With more than 65,000 residents, Mission Viejo would be the county’s 11th or 12th most populous city and the county’s largest ever at the time of incorporation.

A financial feasibility study showed that as a city, Mission Viejo would have a surplus of several million dollars, which it could use to increase services.

“This will not bind the community, but it will simply preserve an option,” said district board member Robert Breton before the vote. “I think that the facts of (incorporation) feasibility are sufficiently clear to be placed on the ballot.”

A group representing the surrounding Saddleback Valley communities of El Toro, Lake Forest, Aegean Hills and Laguna Hills tried to persuade the services district board to include them in the proposed city’s boundaries, arguing that a larger city would be more politically and financially powerful than two or more smaller cities.

But the directors rejected that argument, saying they did not want to complicate the issue for voters and jeopardize Mission Viejo’s chances of obtaining local government.

“I was elected by the voters of Mission Viejo to preserve and protect their interests and I will vote accordingly,” board member Victoria Jaffe said.