Polite Turf War in Antelope Valley Pits Lancaster Against Palmdale

There’s a polite little war going on in the Antelope Valley these days.

On one side is the City of Lancaster--the “big guy”--an established and growing city of 70,000 residents that has extended its sphere of influence over about 200 square miles of high desert land.

On the other side is the City of Palmdale--”the little guy”--an upstart town expanding so fast that its population has soared from 15,000 to about 40,000 in just three or four years.

In between them is the Los Angeles County’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), which is charged with keeping the fight fair and the casualties minimal in the battle for some of the largest chunks of unclaimed land in the county.

That land includes most of the unincorporated territory in the Antelope Valley. It is a huge tract of agricultural acreage and untamed desert reaching from the San Gabriel Mountains on the south to the Kern County line on the north, from Quail Lake on the west to the San Bernardino County line on the east. Close to 700 square miles in all.

Arnie Rodio, the mayor of Lancaster, frankly admits that he would like to get as much of it for his city as possible--especially land west of the Antelope Valley Freeway, which would give his town choice residential property and the water rights it needs for continued expansion.

“We’re planning for the future,” he said. “I’d like to see our city limits reach all the way to Gorman (about 40 miles away). That’s how far west I’d like to go.”

Tracy Bibb, the mayor of Palmdale, said his city has been eyeing some of the same land “to protect our interests.”

“We’re doing it because of what Lancaster’s doing,” Bibb said. “Lancaster wants annexation. We just want some of that land in our sphere of influence so Lancaster can’t get it.”

Spheres of influence are extensions of each city’s boundaries to encompass land that LAFCO believes the city someday may annex or provide with basic services such as sewer systems, schools, and fire and police protection.

LAFCO’s inclusion of a parcel in one city’s sphere is a signal to other cities to keep their hands off.

The battle for land in the Antelope Valley heated up in recent weeks when proposals were submitted to LAFCO that would have Lancaster and Palmdale annexing, and expanding their spheres of influence, to include some of the same choice property available for commercial development along the Antelope Valley Freeway.

These parcels are important because land zoned for commercial use is the land where retail sales are, and will be, made. In California, a city’s revenues are based, in large part, on its share of the state sales tax collected within its boundaries.

“Palmdale’s getting very aggressive,” said Lancaster’s Mayor Rodio. “It’s the little guy down the street--Palmdale--taking on the big guy--us. We’re counteracting, with the same kinds of proposals and incentives. . . .

“They’re trying to steal our car dealers--attract them away,” Rodio said. “The bigger stores were coming to us, but now Palmdale’s getting a new mall. They’ve got Sears now, and they’ve pulled Penney’s away from us.

“The competition is increasing. We need the sales taxes.”

Palmdale’s Bibb replied that “all we’re doing is trying to protect our interests.”

One of the proposals submitted to LAFCO was a petition from a land developer who wants Palmdale to annex his 150-acre commercial parcel. The other proposal, by the City of Lancaster, called for Lancaster’s annexation of a 640-acre tract that included the same 150-acre parcel.

“I met with both cities and tried for a compromise,” said Ruth Benell, LAFCO’s executive officer. “I was not able to accomplish that.”

Thus it was that on Dec. 9, the agency that mediates turf wars between municipalities held a public hearing at the Hall of Administration in downtown Los Angeles to decide the issue. Several busloads of interested Antelope Valley residents made the 140-mile round trip to witness the proceedings.

Since the lands in question were in neither city’s sphere of influence, the first order of business was to adjust the spheres.

Lancaster got a lot; its sphere was expanded from its city limits to an area about five times as large.

Lancaster’s sphere now includes all the land between the Kern County line on the north, West 110th Street on the west, East 120th Street on the east, and a line running variously along Avenues I, L and M on the south--about 250 square miles in all. The sphere includes part of Edwards Air Force Base.

Palmdale got less; a little land was added on the southeast and northwest to its large doughnut of territory surrounding the Los Angeles Department of Airports’ long-proposed international airfield there.

The key for Palmdale was the chunk on the northwest. That chunk included the 150-acre tract in question and, when the day was done, Palmdale had been given permission to annex the land next to the freeway.

So each city had won a little in the continuing battle for unclaimed land in the Antelope Valley, with Palmdale apparently carrying the day.

Another winner, at least for the time being, was Quartz Hill, a semi-rural, unincorporated community of about 17,000 on the southwestern fringe of the battle zone.

Lancaster was stopped short of its ambitions to extend its sphere of influence south to Avenue M in the Quartz Hill area, which would have cut the unincorporated community in half. Palmdale, which already surrounds Quartz Hill on two sides, edged up close to it on a third, but still was not permitted to include Quartz Hill in its sphere of influence.

According to Vance R. Backert, president of the Quartz Hill Chamber of Commerce, the people there lack a tax base now, but they hope someday to incorporate into a city of their own.

“We don’t want to be part of Lancaster or Palmdale,” Backert said. “This is still the most desirable place to live in the Antelope Valley.