Harbor Area Secession Drive Nears Key Number of Backers

Petitioners have two weeks to come up with only 20 more valid signatures needed to force the Local Agency Formation Commission to study the economic feasibility of secession from Los Angeles by San Pedro and Wilmington.

LAFCO officials said that a petition filed Friday by Harbor VOTE Inc. contained 13,450 valid voter signatures, according to a check by the Los Angeles County registrar’s office. That is just 20 shy of the 13,470 required for the study.

Unlike other ballot drives, cityhood proposals are not immediately placed before voters after activists collect enough signatures. Instead, they are sent to LAFCO, which studies them in depth before ultimately deciding whether to place a secession vote on the ballot.

The state recently set aside money to pay for such studies.

Although San Pedro and Wilmington are home to only about 140,000 of Los Angeles’ roughly 3.5 million residents, their proposed secession has enormous potential ramifications. The two communities are home to the Port of Los Angeles, one of the world’s major trading centers.

Secessionists say they would try to take the port with them, pointing out that the state owns most of the harbor lands and waters and leases them to Los Angeles through a tidelands grant.

The city of Los Angeles is equally determined to keep the port--an enormous asset in which, over the years, it has invested what amounts to at least $250 million in today’s dollars.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who also faces a secession threat from the San Fernando Valley, is among the political leaders who have made it clear they will battle to see that Los Angeles stays intact.