EL TORO : Group Launches Incorporation Drive

With a slogan of “Protect and Direct Our Future,” a group of El Toro and Lake Forest residents Wednesday announced the opening of a 10-month campaign to form what they hope will be Orange County’s 30th city.

The group, called Community Coalition for Incorporation, seeks to collect 10,000 signatures from registered voters in Lake Forest, El Toro and Portola Hills by March 14, said Helen Wilson, president of the organization that is seeking to create a city that would include those three South County communities.

The small group made its remarks at a 3:30 p.m. press conference outside Heritage Hill Historical Park. Group members said they are confident they have the support needed for the effort to succeed.

Supporters favor cityhood because a “new local city government would efficiently replace what is now a distant and disinterested administration,” a prepared statement by the coalition says in reference to the County Board of Supervisors. “In simple terms,” the statement says, “our citizens want and need local control.”

The coalition envisions a 21-square-mile city that would also include the Foothills Ranch, a proposed development of houses and industrial and commercial buildings in the hilly countryside between Portola Hills and El Toro.

The signature drive is one of the first steps the Community Coalition for Incorporation needs to complete to accomplish its goal. Once it has the required number of signatures, it can take its application to the Orange County Local Area Formation Commission for a review. The commission will then review the application and decide whether to order a vote on the matter.

The group also is awaiting results of a final feasibility study it commissioned that is being prepared by an Oceanside-based financial consultant. The study, to be released in mid-January, is expected to show that revenue for the proposed city would outpace spending by about 30%, Wilson said.

On Saturday, about 45 coalition members will set up tables at nine shopping centers in Lake Forest and El Toro, said Bill Culbertson, petition coordinator for the coalition. The group will seek to collect signatures at the nine places every weekend for the next eight weeks, Culbertson said.