Voters Reject Cityhood for Laguna Hills

In a heated election that pitted one generation against another and drew a whopping 60% voter turnout Tuesday, a proposal to make Laguna Hills a city was defeated by a mere 284 votes.

By a vote of 8,701 to 8,985, the residents of Laguna Hills rejected a second attempt in six months to create a city that would include their tax-rich area. A proposal to create a larger Saddleback Valley city similarly met defeat at the polls last November.

A 60% turnout is considered extremely large in a one-issue election. The

outcome of Tuesday’s election can be attributed to exceptionally heavy voter turnout in Leisure World, where the many residents feared that cityhood would bring increased taxes and upset their life style.

Wally Bjornson, president of Leisure World Against Incorporation, said he was staggered by the small margin.

“I’m surprised because I thought it would lose by a much larger margin than that. I’m very happy it lost, but I am nervous about the small margin. It might be enough to call for a recount.”

He said the issue has been very divisive in Leisure World and he had hoped the vote would have been more decisive so “it could be put to bed.”

Joel Lautenschleger, co-chairman of a group of proponents of incorporation outside of Leisure World, said, “It is very depressing to lose by a few votes like that.” He said he assumed the loss was due to a large negative vote from Leisure World.

At Clubhouse 1 in Leisure World on Tuesday morning, lines to voting booths were 150-people deep, including voters with walkers and in wheelchairs. Herbe Lenske said that in his 15 years as an election officer in Leisure World, which has traditionally produced big voter turnouts, “I have never seen anything like it.” By 5 p.m. he figured that almost 90% of the 1,300 registered voters assigned to his polling place already had cast their ballots.

Lenske said most of the voters seemed to be opposed to incorporation essentially because they don’t like change and “they don’t want anything to do with more government.”

Madeline Stroud, 87, had risked crossing El Toro Road during the rush-hour traffic in an electric wheelchair to cast her vote against cityhood.

“If it passes, we will have to pay so many taxes it will be horrible,” she said.

By contrast, Kim Perri, 24, who was carrying her 4-month-old daughter at Laguna Hills High School, where she had voted in favor of incorporation, said she was hoping that a new city would be more responsive to local needs than the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

“I’d like to see more money spent on parks,” she said.

Perri said she was concerned that if the incorporation proposal met defeat, Laguna Hills eventually would become part of a larger city in which Laguna Hills residents would have less say.

Laguna Hills was the fourth proposed city decided by elections in the past 18 months. In that time two cities, Mission Viejo and Dana Point, were voted into being and the Saddleback Valley proposal was rejected. Yet another incorporation election, for Laguna Niguel, is scheduled in November.

However, none of the other areas proposed for cityhood has had the unique demographic makeup of Laguna Hills, where the Leisure World retirement community would form its geographic and political heart.

The proposed Laguna Hills city of 45,000 residents, including 21,500 in Leisure World, would have encompassed 6,000 acres wedged between Interstate 5 on the east and the Aliso Viejo planned community on the west. It would have become the county’s 29th city.

Proponents of cityhood for Laguna Hills have argued that it would enable more tax dollars generated in the area to be spent there, rather than dispersed to other, less affluent parts of Orange County.

According to a fiscal analysis commissioned by cityhood proponents, the city in its first full year of operation would reap revenue of $15 million, and after costs of operation, would have almost $5.5 million in “surplus,” some of which could be spent for municipal improvements.

“For a city starting off, they are in a very healthy position,” said Harry Weinroth, owner of HSW Associates, the San Juan Capistrano-based consulting firm which studied the city’s financial feasibility study for proponents of cityhood.

Advocates said that with the extra money the city could increase police protection and funnel more money into parks. Also, they contended, a city council would be more effective than the Orange County Board of Supervisors in controlling the worsening problem of local traffic congestion and staving off attempts to allow commercial jet flights at the airport at the nearby El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

In the campaigning, cityhood advocates have promised that a city could stop or sharply scale back a plan to build a large business park called Forbes Ranch that would dump 42,000 vehicles a day on already congested El Toro Road and Moulton Parkway.

But strong resistance to cityhood welled up in Leisure World, where many residents doubted that the change could do them any good and worried that it might disrupt their life style.

Opponents of incorporation noted that by law, none of the city’s extra tax revenue could be spent within the private community, which finances its own streets, recreational facilities, security, and bus service.

In recent weeks, the cityhood debate has raged within Leisure World, pitting neighbor against neighbor. The Golden Rain Foundation, which operates the community’s facilities, and the Leisure World News, the community’s weekly newspaper, have thrown their support behind cityhood although Myra Neben, editor of the Leisure World News, said before the election that letters to the editor were running heavily against incorporation.

DEFEATED PROPOSAL FOR LAGUNA HILLS CITYHOOD

Population: 45,000 residents, including 21,500 in Leisure World. Population close to Cypress (45,350) and Tustin (46,800).

Politics: 29,759 registered voters, including 18,219 Republicans and 8,898 Democrats.

Size: 6,000 acres between Interstate 5 on the east and Aliso Viejo on the west. Laguna Hills is about the size of Fountain Valley--Fountain Valley is 9.6 square miles; Laguna Hills 9.4 square miles.

Budget: City would have revenues of $14.8 million and expenditures of $9.4 million in first full year of operation.

Revenue: Major sources, according to city feasibility study: about $5.6 million in sales taxes from Laguna Hills Mall and other retail along Moulton and Alicia parkways. Also $500,000 in bed taxes from Holiday Inn, Laguna Hills Hyatt Lodge and Comfort Inn, $2.8 million in motor vehicle taxes, and more than $1 million in gas taxes.

ELECTION RESULTS

Laguna Hills Cityhood

29 of 29 Precincts Reporting

Votes % Yes 8,701 49.2 No 8,985 50.8

City Council

Five would have been elected if cityhood had passed.

Votes % Herbert Schwartz 6,894 11.1 Craig Scott 6,836 11.0 Melody Carruth 6,809 10.9 Leon A. Bosch 6,250 10.0 L. Allan Songstad Jr. 6,246 10.0 Philip S. Borden 5,989 9.6 James Dukette 4,777 7.7 Janice Graham 4,208 6.8 William A. Honigman 3,121 5.0 Bea Hassel Rogatz 3,084 4.9 Norman F. Garton 3,001 4.8 Bernard Kuai 1,980 3.2 Patricia Ann Gummeson 1,684 2.7 Karl Gustav Schneider II 1,438 2.3