2 Areas to Vote on Annexation to Santa Clarita

Residents in two adjacent neighborhoods that were accidentally left outside Santa Clarita’s boundaries when the city incorporated 2 1/2 years ago will go to the polls Nov. 6 to decide whether the area should become part of the city.

The annexation, which is opposed by some residents of the area, would add 1,038 acres of unincorporated land to the eastern boundary of the city, just north of the Antelope Valley Freeway in Canyon Country.

About 5,000 residents live in the area known as the Pinetree-Timberlane neighborhood, a network of winding streets and cul-de-sacs mainly branching off Poppy Meadow Street and Abelia Road.

The Santa Clarita City Council set the election date at a council meeting Tuesday night. Technically, the council approved the annexation, said Santa Clarita Associate Planner Don Williams. It is now up to voters to confirm or reject the proposal.

The election was prompted by protest petitions signed by 21%, or 761, of the area’s 3,607 registered voters, Community Development Director Lynn M. Harris said in a memo to the council.

The protesters needed signatures from at least 15% of the voters to force an election, otherwise the annexation could have been completed with the approval of Santa Clarita and the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission, Williams said.

The lengthy annexation process began more than two years ago when it was discovered that the area had not been included in the legal description of the new 40-square-mile city, Williams said.

Pinetree-Timberlane residents, including some who had lobbied for cityhood, requested the annexation, saying they would rather be under the jurisdiction of the Santa Clarita than Los Angeles County.

Officials from Santa Clarita and LAFCO have said the omission was an accident. The commission, which oversees incorporations and annexations, has approved adding Pinetree-Timberlane to Santa Clarita.

If the annexation is approved by a majority of the voters in November, Williams said, it will take about six weeks to complete the paper work officially transferring Pinetree-Timberlane into the city.