Foothill Activists Set South County Cityhood Drive

A coalition of South County residents who want to incorporate 10 foothill communities into the county’s 32nd city will begin circulating petitions this weekend to put the proposal before voters, officials said Thursday.

“We’ve got the go-ahead to begin collecting signatures,” said Rancho Santa Margarita resident Michelle Lamb, who is helping lead the incorporation effort. “We’ll be out there in full force.”

Lamb and others on the Foothills Cityhood Committee had delayed gathering signatures until their petition was reviewed by the agency that oversees incorporations, the Local Agency Formation Commission, to head off any potential problems with the document.

The areas that would be incorporated under the proposal are Rancho Santa Margarita, Coto de Caza, Las Flores, Portola Hills, Foothill Ranch, Robinson Ranch, Dove Canyon, Trabuco Canyon, Trabuco Highlands and Rancho Cielo.

William Gayk, director of the Center for Demographic Research at Cal State Fullerton, estimates 170,000 people live in all of unincorporated Orange County, and about 65,000 of them currently live in the foothill communities. The proposed city would be more than 90,000 people strong after the developments are built out, officials estimate.

Supporters say incorporation will give them local control and allow them to retain a major portion of their lucrative tax base--money that now goes to the county. The communities are now governed by the county Board of Supervisors.

But opponents criticize the incorporation drive as creating a “super city”--the exact kind of place residents moved to the foothills to get away from. Incorporating will also water down local control, not increase it, they maintain.

In response to such concerns, two additional incorporation movements have sprung up: One that would turn Rancho Santa Margarita into its own city and another that would merge Foothill Ranch, Portola Hills and possibly Trabuco Canyon. Both efforts are in preliminary stages during which the financial feasibility of cityhood is being studied.

“If we incorporate, then we have to deal with a city council that has to represent all these different communities with their different interests, and where does that leave us?” asked Rancho Santa Margarita resident Gary Thompson, co-founder of the Rancho Santa Margarita Cityhood Review Committee.

“I disagree with the argument the bigger you are the stronger you are,” said Helen Ward, who is helping to lead the Foothill Ranch incorporation effort. “I think that also means the harder you fall.”

Ward said a poll of Foothill Ranch residents found that 43% of respondents favored incorporating into a smaller city.

Orange County Supervisors Marian Bergeson and Don Saltarelli have both encouraged the incorporation efforts.