City Will Pay $35,000 for Map of Boundaries

The City Council voted this week to spend $35,500 for a map of city boundaries.

The city will pay a consultant for a field survey to replace current maps that Mission Viejo engineers said are inaccurate in some places.

In particular, the survey will inspect the Lake Forest/Mission Viejo boundary that runs along Los Alisos Boulevard.

“The border runs along the middle of the street,” said City Engineer Loren Anderson. “When there are traffic accidents, deputies from both cities sometime show up and we’re not sure who has jurisdiction.”

The survey will be done by Johnson-Frank and Associates, an Anaheim-based engineering firm.

Anderson said that when the Mission Viejo cityhood drive was launched in 1988, the county hurriedly put together a map of the city. As a result, border lines outlined on maps didn’t match tract and parcel maps.

“The bottom line is that we felt we needed accurate borders,” he said.

The survey is only the first part of the mapping project. After the city’s borders are determined, engineers will ask for about $26,000 to install signs at several locations.

“We want people to know when they’re entering Mission Viejo,” said Anderson, who added that no residences should be affected by any shift in the city’s boundaries.