ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : North Tustin Is Told to Sit Down

North Tustin residents this week were denied the opportunity to vote on cityhood, ending--or at least inserting a punctuation mark in--a campaign that proponents called an effort to preserve the community’s identity. Incorporation wouldn’t have been a sure thing even if it had made it to the November ballot. But at least the people directly affected would have decided. Now, instead, there’s the promise of a lawsuit by incorporation backers and the prospect of continued piecemeal annexations of the area by Orange and Tustin.

The new city would have been unique in having no local sales tax base to take over from Orange County. There’s only one restaurant, and no other retail businesses within the proposed boundaries.

The staff of the Local Agency Formation Commission, which reviews incorporation efforts, recommended that an 11% utility tax be imposed, which would have had to be approved simultaneously with incorporation. But the commission, in a decision one cityhood backer appropriately dubbed “paternalism,” decided not to give the community a chance to wrestle with that difficult issue.

If residents had voted for incorporation, they would have had to do so recognizing that something so important is worth sacrificing for. The commission preempted what was rightfully the community’s decision.