Spring Valley Renews Campaign for Cityhood : Civic Affairs: Proponents say move would give area control over roads, parks and development, but opponents think the tax base is lacking.

On and off for the last 10 years, community leaders of Spring Valley would gather and talk about making the town a full-fledged city, complete with its own city council and local control over new developments.

Incorporation was the buzzword, and self-determination was fast becoming popular in the 65,000-population community, according to Chris Heiserman, coordinator for the newly formed Spring Valley Incorporation Coalition.

Members of the group have renewed efforts in the last few months to increase community interest by campaigning for incorporation through fund-raisers and flyers. Incorporation advocates said they are pushing for cityhood before surrounding cities begin swallowing parts of the Spring Valley area by annexation.

By incorporating, Heiserman said, Spring Valley could retain state revenue and property taxes generated by its residents, which are now distributed countywide, and have the autonomy to make land-use decisions.

Local services, such as law enforcement, road maintenance, and parks and recreation would be transferred from the county to the city, at no extra tax cost to residents, he said.

“We’re a community that needs its own focus and own identity,” Heiserman said. “We are big and urban enough to handle the potential that has not yet been realized because the county can’t solve our problems quick enough.”

Cityhood advocates hope Spring Valley residents will give incorporation a thumbs up in a June, 1992 ballot. But, before they can take their cause to the polls, they must first clear some costly hurdles, according to Heiserman.

The grass-roots group has raised the first $4,000 of at least $30,000 it will need in its two-year incorporation effort. It is in the process of hiring an independent consulting firm, which will conduct a feasibility study to determine whether the area will have the tax base to support cityhood, Heiserman said.

That report then goes to the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission, an independent agency that decides whether the city will be able to pay for a city manager, police protection and other municipal services. Incorporation must also be approved by the County Board of Supervisors.

A handful of incorporation opponents, however, already believe that, other than a few shopping centers around Spring Valley, the area lacks a big enough tax base to support incorporation.

Some residents have opposed plans for cityhood over the last 10 years, saying it will not improve services.

“Other cities, like Lemon Grove, that incorporated are using our county sheriffs for their law enforcement,” just as unincorporated areas do now, said long-time Spring Valley resident Eileen Smith, referring to Lemon Grove’s contract with the Sheriff’s Department.

But Heiserman and other residents of Spring Valley also use Lemon Grove, its neighbor to the west, as a rallying point. They said the 13-year-old city now provides its residents with better services than when the community was under county tutelage. Cityhood has also spruced up a now dynamic Lemon Grove, according to Spring Valley resident Barbara Myers, whereas Spring Valley has been developed in a more “hodgepodge sort of way.”

Malcolm Gettman, an avid supporter of incorporation and chairman of the Spring Valley Planning Group, described his hometown as a gateway to East County and South Bay.

“This is one of the county’s untapped resources. People envision Spring Valley as just one small pocket of people. It’s really a community with many different neighborhoods, some with million-dollar homes, surrounding Dictionary Hill in the middle,” Gettman aid.

He said there is just enough of a tax base in Spring Valley to support city services at or above current levels should it become a municipality.

“That doesn’t include any additional growth we may get,” Gettman said.

Heiserman said Spring Valley is fast becoming a “bedroom community,” where weary commuters simply stop to sleep before racing back to a job in the city. He hopes the campaign to incorporate will halt what he calls the piecemeal overdevelopment of apartment complexes and multifamily units in the middle-class community.

“We’re getting more residential--more of a bedroom community than a mixed-use community that can offer local jobs,” Heiserman said.

According to a study conducted last year, more than half of the working population of Spring Valley commutes to jobs outside the community, Heiserman said. He contends that Spring Valley, by becoming a city, would be able to monitor the number of apartments built, as well as vigorously recruit new businesses.

“If we had local control, we could address these issues,” Heiserman said. “It’s not that the county isn’t paying attention, but they have higher problems to worry about than too many apartments in Spring Valley.”

If incorporated, Spring Valley would cover 17 square miles and be bounded on the south and west by Sweetwater Reservoir and the cities of San Diego and Lemon Grove. The northern boundary in the Casa de Oro neighborhood would extend to Tropico and Challenge.

It would remain in the San Miguel Fire Protection District, Heiserman said, and the city would consider contracting with the Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement protection during its first few years, rather than developing its own police department.

The last time communities successfully incorporated was in 1986, when Solana Beach and Encinitas became municipalities, making them the 17th and 18th cities in San Diego County. After that, efforts in 1987 to incorporate Rancho Santa Fe and Fallbrook were defeated at the polls.

“In the 1980s, there was a trend for unincorporated areas to try to become cities. Poway and Santee did it in the early ‘80s. Lakeside also submitted a petition for incorporation but did not have the required number of signatures,” said Mike Ott, staff analyst for LAFCO.

He said the agency is now involved with Spring Valley and Ramona in their cityhood efforts.