Cityhood Vote Hinges on Diamond Bar Growth Issue

The Diamond Bar Ranch was little more than 8,000 acres of rolling hills when developers bought it in 1956 to create Southern California’s first planned community. Builders constructed spacious homes, beckoning affluent buyers with the promise of country living--complete with a stable in the back yard--only half an hour by freeway from downtown Los Angeles.

Diamond Bar retained its rural flavor for most of its first two decades. But in the 1980s, suburban sprawl overtook the community. In the last eight years, the population has increased 60% to 44,930, making Diamond Bar the second-fastest-growing community in the San Gabriel Valley.

The number of apartments and condominiums tripled during the same period and they now make up 37% of all housing in the once-bucolic community. Rush-hour traffic inches along streets lined with banks and fast-food outlets.

Community leaders such as attorney Paul Horcher, a member of Diamond Bar’s Municipal Advisory Council--an elected board that advises Supervisor Pete Schabarum--blame the county for the urbanization of Diamond Bar. County officials, they said, have given developers carte blanche while turning a deaf ear to residents.

Feelings of Betrayal

“A lot of people who came to Diamond Bar were promised country living, and that did not come to pass,” said Horcher, 37, who moved to the area with his parents in the 1960s. “Frankly, they feel betrayed. I feel our quality of life has been compromised by people who didn’t live here, who didn’t have to live with the consequences of their decisions.”

To salvage what is left of the area, community leaders say Diamond Bar residents must pass a ballot measure Tuesday to incorporate the community as a city and impose local control on growth.

If the measure passes, Diamond Bar will become the first new city in Los Angeles County since Santa Clarita incorporated in December, 1987. A similar Diamond Bar cityhood measure was narrowly defeated at the polls in 1983, but incorporation proponents say a burgeoning slow-growth sentiment should ensure success this time.

“Since 1983, they have seen the county’s decision-making based on regional concerns and not on what’s good for Diamond Bar,” said Phyllis Papen, president of the Diamond Bar Improvement Assn. and, like Horcher, a candidate for the first City Council. “I think (cityhood) will pass with 70% of the voters approving it.”

But not everyone in Diamond Bar views cityhood as a panacea. Members of a recently formed anti-incorporation committee argue that local control over growth means little since all but 300 acres of the community has already been developed. To them, cityhood offers only the threat of higher taxes and more meddlesome bureaucracy.

“We like the quaintness of the community,” said Mike Zullo, co-chairman of the anti-cityhood committee. “The sophistication of being a city doesn’t appeal to us. The cost of being a city doesn’t appeal to us.”

Cityhood foes raised the specter of higher costs in 1983 when a measure that would have made Diamond Bar a city was defeated by 230 votes.

This time, cityhood proponents have attempted a preemptive strike against the tax argument. They have mailed flyers to every home in Diamond Bar reminding residents that Proposition 13, the 1978 tax revolt initiative, prohibits cities from raising property taxes without a two-thirds majority in a popular vote.

But opponents say there is little to stop local officials from imposing a utility tax--such as the 10% levy on gas, electric and telephone service in neighboring Pomona--or creating assessment districts, in which property owners are billed for landscape maintenance or street lights.

“We do not want to pay higher taxes, period,” said Al Rumpilla, the opposition group’s other co-chairman. “Assessments, fees or taxes, it’s all the same.”

Tactic Questioned

Gary Werner, who led Diamond Bar’s incorporation effort until he announced his candidacy for the City Council in December, said the effectiveness of the tax argument depends on voters’ confidence in the economy. It worked in 1983, he said, because the nation was coming out of a recession. After six years of economic recovery, opponents may find it a less successful tactic, he said.

The campaign has become increasingly rancorous. Members of the anti-cityhood group charged last week that almost all of their 400 campaign signs have been stolen or vandalized. They have called on the Sheriff’s Department to investigate.