Unincorporated Areas Debate Cityhood Issue

Cityhood will be a hot issue in 1998 for towns and neighborhoods around Orange County that remain unincorporated.

Some, like Rossmoor, will be resisting moves to give up unincorporated status, an increasingly difficult situation with shrinking tax revenues and fewer dollars to support the rising costs of city services.

Others, like many South County areas, will be arguing not over whether to incorporate, but how. Relatively new developments like Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills want to become cities in their own right, while Lake Forest will fight to annex them and expand its boundary beyond historic El Toro.

Likewise, Leisure World, Rancho Santa Margarita and Aliso Viejo are exploring cityhood. But the issue is further complicated by an insurgent group of South County residents furious over the plans for a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine base who want more clout and propose detaching themselves as a new Saddleback County.