Leisure World Votes for Cityhood

Voters in Leisure World, where the average age is 77, approved a ballot measure Tuesday making theirs the nation’s first gated city of senior citizens.

With all 32 precincts counted, 51.7% favored incorporation and 48.3% were against, the Orange County registrar of voters reported.

By a 2-1 margin, voters also chose the name Laguna Woods over the other option, Laguna Verde.

“It was a lot of hard work, a grass-roots effort like you wouldn’t believe,” said Columba Kaufman, a leader in the cityhood campaign.

“We didn’t give up and tried to be as positive as possible.”

But Helen Ensweiler, president of the anti-incorporation group, worried about Leisure World’s future as a city. “It’s going to be a very unhappy place here, but we’ll have to deal with it,” she said.

Cityhood advocates said incorporation would give the retirement community of 18,000 people greater clout to fight the proposed conversion of nearby El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a commercial airport.

They also maintained that being a city would improve services, especially police protection, and thwart possible annexation by another city.

But foes of cityhood feared that taxes and fees could go up, and that creating a five-member City Council would add another layer of government and politicize the community.

They also disagreed with revenue projections concluding that 35-year-old Leisure World could support itself as Orange County’s 32nd city.

Leisure World will be only the fourth gated city among California’s 471 municipalities. The others are Rolling Hills and Hidden Hills in Los Angeles County and Canyon Lake in Riverside County.

Many housing industry experts believe it also will be the nation’s first gated city made up primarily of retired people.

The minimum age for living in Leisure World is 55, although spouses may be younger.

Poll workers said the turnout was impressive.

In one precinct, for example, where there are 633 people, 195 filed absentee ballots and 238 others had shown up to vote by 6 p.m., election officials said.

Leaders of the cityhood campaign said there appeared to be a generation gap, with the community’s older residents more inclined to oppose incorporation and younger people more receptive to the idea.

In 1989, Leisure World voters helped defeat a proposal for incorporation of Laguna Hills, which later did become a city.