Dana Point : County Commission Backs Incorporation

In the making of a city, it was a small step.

Still, Dana Point’s 2 1/2-year-old drive toward cityhood received a boost Wednesday when members of the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission not only declared it their top priority, but added that they would like to see the issue on the November ballot.

Wearing small paper sailboats in their lapels, more than 50 Dana Point residents watched as LAFC commissioner and county Supervisor Roger R. Stanton reeled off a list of Orange County communities seeking to incorporate.

“Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, North Tustin, Capistrano Beach--in all reality, it doesn’t look like the others have a chance to get on the ballot,” Stanton said.

“This (Dana Point) is the one in this year,” Stanton said.

Several of the other drives toward cityhood have been marked by bitter boundary disputes, with some communities saying they don’t want to be included. By contrast, Dana Point residents say they are united for incorporation. Also, said Judy Carerri, chairwoman of Dana Point Citizens for Incorporation, their 60-year-old community has the financial capability to govern itself and pay for civic services; their feasibility study projected a $1.2 million surplus in the city’s first year.

For all their enthusiasm, several commissioners indicated that they probably will require Dana Point to include the smaller, neighboring community of Capistrano Beach within its boundaries.

Leaders of both Dana Point and “Capo Beach” said they would prefer separate cities. “We’re tired of being the Rodney Dangerfield of Orange County. We demand some respect,” said Terry Lucarelli, a spokeswoman for Capistrano Beach residents.

But Stanton said he doubted that Capistrano Beach had the financial resources to survive on its own. Commissioners voted Wednesday, 5 to 0, to consider a single city including Dana Point and Capistrano Beach at a hearing on May 5. After the meeting, several Capistrano Beach and Dana Point leaders said they could probably live with that.