Coronita Fights for Its Identity : Annexation: Locals have long resisted becoming part of Corona. But a merger of the two communities is now seen by some as necessary.

At first glance, the community of Coronita isn’t that much different from the fast-growing city of Corona that surrounds it.

Nestled in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, Coronita is a middle-class community made up of about 750 ranch-style homes and an 18-hole golf course.

But since it was developed more than 30 years ago, Coronita has been separate from Corona, remaining an unincorporated part of Riverside County.

For years, residents have resisted annexation because of a longstanding rift with Corona and fears that such a move would bring greater government regulation and higher taxes.

But in the past five years, many new residents have moved into the area, some of whom don’t realize they aren’t in Corona. And with new development going up all around Coronita, some residents say that annexation is starting to make more sense.

“They’re looking around them and they’re seeing things that they can’t control,” said Karen Hausner, the secretary of the Coronita Civic Assn. “They recognize that the only way they can fight it is from the inside.”

Because Coronita is now just a dot among fast-growing unincorporated areas of Riverside County, Hausner and others believe that being part of Corona would give them better representation than if they continue to rely on the County Board of Supervisors.

Further, annexation proponents argue that they need better, closer police protection. They are now served by one county sheriff’s deputy who also must patrol unincorporated areas miles away on the other side of Corona.

But the opposition--believed to make up the majority of Coronita’s residents--view becoming part of the city as needless, and they are wary of the prospect of being placed under a city’s watchful, bureaucratic eye.

“The people may have a little different mind set,” said Larry Anderson, an eight-year resident who headed a drive against annexation in 1986. “The city seems to be over-regulating. They don’t want that. They don’t want to have to get a permit to hold a garage sale.

“They’re basically apathetic to any issue that isn’t camped in their back yard,” he said. “They just want to be left alone.”

Anderson said that with annexation, residents would also be forced to pay higher prices for building permits.

The rift between Corona and Coronita goes back to the middle 1960s, when Corona took control of Coronita’s water company. Several years later, Corona levied a 50% surcharge on each Coronita resident’s water bill. For example, some Coronita residents pay up to $45 to $50 a month while Corona residents pay $30 to $35.

“There was a lot of fighting,” said Hausner, who was in his teens and a resident of Corona at the time. “It was a lot of personal stuff that has never been forgotten.”

Since then, many longtime Coronita residents have been resentful of the city and any drive for annexation, she said.

Many longtime residents have feared that if they become part of Corona, they would be forced to install sidewalks and street lights. They also believe they would have to connect to the city’s sewer system. All Coronita houses are on septic tanks.

But Corona has guaranteed that such changes would be approved only if residents agree to the creation of a special assessment district, said Deanna Elliano, a senior planner in Corona.

“We assured them that would not be the case,” she said. “We have never taken a position to force them to annex. . . . We have always felt that it was to their benefit to annex.”

But opposition was very apparent in 1986, when 795 of the community’s 1,407 registered voters signed a petition against annexation. The year before, Corona annexed land for Sierra del Oro, a massive housing development that borders Coronita.

The development, built well up into the foothills, alarmed many Coronita residents who were used to unobstructed mountain views and houses built on lots larger than 10,000 square feet.

“You got all of these boxy houses draining on someone else’s property,” Anderson said. “It looks like hell.”

“If it had happened again, the people of Coronita would have been fighting them.”

With the Sierra del Oro development--and overall growth of Corona--came a jump in morning rush-hour traffic. Commuters eager to avoid the bottleneck on the westbound Riverside Freeway have taken to bypassing it by taking residential streets.

The traffic was an unwelcomed surprise for Hausner, who has lived with her family on Pinecrest Drive since 1985. The street, normally calm during the day, gets bumper-to-bumper traffic in the morning.

“My first day here I sat up in my bed and said: ‘My God, what’s going on? We moved next to the freeway,’ ” Hausner said.

Hausner and fellow resident Doris Rumme led a drive to construct speed bumps on the street. Two years ago, they persuaded the county to close the road. But Corona residents objected, she said, and the county backed down.

“The city empties all that traffic onto us,” Anderson said. “It migrates onto all of our residential streets.”

But Hausner believes that the city has been responsive recently in relieving the traffic problem, and Coronita could expect similar help. Recently, Corona closed San Ramon Road, a residential street that also was clogged during morning rush hour.

Still, even annexation proponents were strongly against a recent effort by Corona to annex a 50-acre parcel of Coronita, part of which was to be developed by the Newport Beach-based Ross Development Co.

The Local Agency Formation Commission rejected the annexation, and some commission members said that it would divide the community. An appeal of the decision is pending before the commission on June 28.

Under the development plan, up to 135 homes would be built on 36.6 acres of land. The land is owned by the Corona-Norco Unified School District, which is negotiating the sale of the land with the development company. The other 13-acre parcel is made up of about half a dozen homes on Hilltop Circle, where the Ross Co. had promised residents a new sewer system.

Residents were concerned that the development would mean small, single-family homes would be built next to large ranch houses, some of which have horses. In addition, the property is about the last piece of undeveloped land left in Coronita.

“Can’t we protect any land?” said Margaret Purcell, who has lived in Coronita since 1975. “Do they have to build on everything?”

“We’d like to see Coronita preserved amid all of the development,” she said. “It’s a good life here.”

For now, the Coronita Civic Assn. is keeping its eyes on the unincorporated area of El Cerrito, a rural community now negotiating with Corona for annexation. Hausner said that El Cerrito faces many of the same hesitations that Coronita does.

Even Anderson said that if there is a new annexation drive, he would want to be involved to get “the best deal possible.” But he said that it will be tough persuading longtime residents who fear that annexation could mean giving up their own identity.