Saddleback Valley City Bid on Ballot : November Vote OKd; Laguna Hills Forces Gather in Opposition

An eight-year campaign to carve a vast new city out of south Orange County’s rapidly growing Saddleback Valley took a giant step forward Wednesday as a county planning agency approved placing the cityhood measure on the November ballot.

But in so doing, the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) sparked what promises to be a bitter and divisive political battle between backers of the valleywide cityhood plan and a separate and conflicting proposal to create the city of Laguna Hills.

In their unanimous decision, the five LAFCO members postponed until after the Nov. 8 election a determination on whether voters can decide the fate of the proposed city of Laguna Hills.

The two cityhood proposals contain overlapping boundaries, including disputed jurisdiction over the tax-lucrative Laguna Hills Mall. If the Saddleback Valley proposal is defeated at the polls, commission members said they would then give favorable review to the Laguna Hills proposal at a Dec. 15 hearing.

Favor Valleywide Plan

The commission followed recommendations by its staff and the county Environmental Management Agency, which both concluded that a valleywide city would best facilitate regional planning and more equitably disperse the tax base over a broad population.

Supporters of the Laguna Hills plan--who turned out in force at Wednesday’s commission hearing to protest being included in a valleywide city--said such a municipality would not effectively represent the diverse interests of the area.

They angrily vowed afterward to launch a major political campaign, if necessary, to kill the Saddleback measure when it comes up for vote.

“If you put this on the ballot, you will be creating a divisive situation which will last for years and years and years,” Laguna Hills cityhood proponent Larry Bertino told the commission in a nearly four-hour public hearing at the county Hall of Administration in Santa Ana.

The hearing was packed to overflowing with about 200 banner-toting and flag-waving supporters of both cityhood plans. Some of them came by bus for the event.

Organizers behind Saddleback Valley cityhood--who eight years ago first began circulating the idea for incorporation--praised their proposal as one that could unite the valley into a strong political voice. Herbert Heyes, one of the founders of the Citizens Cityhood Committee for the Greater Saddleback Valley, quoted a passage from Aesop’s Fables to illustrate his point.

“One little stick by itself is easy to break. A bundle of little sticks cannot be easily broken,” he said at the hearing. “The committee of which I am a part has gathered together a bundle of Saddleback Valley communities and has held them together despite the efforts of some to destroy their unity.”

LAFCO Chairman Donald A. Holt Jr., who introduced the motion for the vote, said this decision was one of the more difficult he has had to make. He added that the issue especially struck home to him because his family once owned a ranch in the now-heavily urban area near El Toro Road at Interstate 5.

“What concerned me was looking at what gives the most people an opportunity to vote on the issue,” Holt said, adding that the valley would be “dissected” by having two separate cities of Laguna Hills and Saddleback Valley. “If there are truly that many people opposed to (valleywide) incorporation, they could probably defeat it.”

Also voting in favor were LAFCO members

Evelyn R. Hart, a Newport Beach city councilwoman; Phillip R. Schwartze, a San Juan Capistrano councilman, and county Supervisors Gaddi H. Vasquez and Don R. Roth.

The Saddleback measure, if passed, would create a boot-shaped city of 77,000 inhabitants encompassing the communities of Laguna Hills, El Toro, Lake Forest and Aegean Hills. Interstate 5 now divides Laguna Hills on the west from the other communities. The Laguna Hills proposal would create a city of 50,000 or so residents concentrated west of the freeway.

Both cities would be economically self-sufficient, according to a LAFCO staff report. The Saddleback Valley city would collect more than $25 million in revenues and have expenses of $16 million in its first year, leaving a reserve of about $9 million, the report states. A city of Laguna Hills would collect revenues of $15 million, spend $8.3 million and have $6.3 million left over at the end of the first year, according to a private consultant’s report.

Leisure World, a retirement community of about 21,000 population, is included in the Laguna Hills plan but not in the Saddleback Valley proposal. Two busloads of retirees from Leisure World attended the hearing, expressing mixed support for the city of Laguna Hills. Although Leisure World’s board of directors voted to join a city of Laguna Hills, several of the retirement community’s residents said they did not want to incorporate at all.

Appeal Indicated

Opponents of the valleywide plan say they intend to appeal LAFCO’s decision by appearing before the Board of Supervisors in a protest hearing, which will be called within the next 60 days. If they can submit a petition by that time bearing the signatures of half of the registered voters in the affected area, the supervisors would automatically nullify LAFCO’s action.

But since the proposed city contains so many residents, commission staff members said the gathering of enough signatures in such a short period of time would be nearly impossible. Without that petition, staff members said, the supervisors will automatically place the measure on the ballot.

In that likely event, Allan Songstad, co-chairman of Citizens to Save Laguna Hills, said he would help lead a campaign to defeat the Saddleback Valley proposal.

“We’re going to fight,” Songstad said after the hearing, surrounded by supporters wearing “Save Laguna Hills” stickers.

Saddleback Valley cityhood proponents wore “Stay in the Saddle” stickers, and unfurled a banner across one end of the hearing room which read: “Boot us into a Saddleback city.” That faction erupted in shouts of “All right!” and began waving flags after the commission voted. The Laguna Hills supporters, on the other hand, silently filed out of the room.

About 50 people in all testified at the hearing, which lasted so long that at one point Supervisor Roth wearily muttered to himself, “I can’t believe this.” Sentiment was so evenly divided between the two cityhood proposals that Holt told the speakers to line up according to ideological viewpoint behind two microphones.

Holt repeatedly had to admonish the crowd to quit applauding the various speakers. And at one point, when an angry exchange flared between a Laguna Hills cityhood supporter and several members of the audience, Holt threatened to clear the hearing room.

Songstad said he believes that there is widespread opposition to the proposed valleywide city, as evidenced by testimony Wednesday from residents living throughout its proposed jurisdiction. The largest concentration of speakers voicing opposition hailed from Laguna Hills, followed by a small but vocal contingent from Aegean Hills.

Petitioned for Annexation

Aegean Hills, an unincorporated community of 7,000 residents, has already petitioned LAFCO to let it be annexed by neighboring Mission Viejo, which became a city last year. The annexation proposal is still pending before LAFCO. The Aegean Hills residents who spoke noted that they already have Mission Viejo mailing addresses.

Opponents of the valleywide city attacked the method by which the matter came under LAFCO’s review. While organizers for Laguna Hills cityhood submitted a 3,200-name petition to get LAFCO to hear their request, the Saddleback Valley measure was heard after the Santa Ana Mountains County Water District--which has jurisdiction over some of the affected area--passed a resolution endorsing incorporation.

Incorporation requests can be submitted for LAFCO’s consideration either by petition or by a resolution passed by an affected government agency.

“I think 3,200 signed petitions should outweigh an obscure water district,” said Brad Remillard, a petition captain for the Laguna Hills cityhood drive.

However, Nina Lozano, a Laguna Hills resident who helped circulate petitions in favor of the valleywide city, said that the same people who signed the Laguna Hills cityhood petition also signed hers.

“It appears people have no qualms about signing petitions,” Lozano observed.