Brea Annexation ‘Just Makes Sense’ for Many Residents

Residents of the 42 homes just over the Brea border in Los Angeles County will get new city trash cans, a cheaper water rate, quicker response to emergencies and a bit of a hike in property values when they join Orange County early next year.

But more important for them is that everything will make more sense.

Since residents moved into their upscale stucco homes on this two-block stretch in the late 1960s, they have been voting on school issues and paying taxes for Los Angeles County services they rarely used because hills isolated the neighborhood from the county.

Instead, they shopped and ate out south of the county border in Brea--a block away, not over the hills. Los Angeles County has, under a contract, used Brea police since 1973 to patrol the Midbury Street neighborhood simply because it was easier for Brea police to respond to emergencies than it was for county sheriff’s deputies.

“We have been a little isolated from other neighbors,” said Kathy Marasco, a Midbury Street resident for 21 years.

The collective split personality will end with the first annexation to Orange County from another county in more than a decade. Los Angeles County agreed recently to work with Orange County and Brea toward the annexation. Los Angeles County is expected to approve the changeover in July.

Residents in the tight-knit, 18-acre community look forward to voting on Brea City Council issues they have been following on cable television. They won’t miss the long drive to Rowland Heights high schools to vote in elections. “It just makes sense,” said Al Bertulli, a Midbury neighborhood resident for 21 years.

What didn’t make sense to many, including his wife, Beverly, were things like struggling for years to get Los Angeles County animal control officers to remove stray dogs or raccoons. Often animal control officers would ask why the residents hadn’t called Orange County instead. Similar frustrations arose with the registrar of voters, which would note the Brea mailing address and often send Orange County ballots to residents.

“I tell them to open the Thomas Brothers Guide, look at those two blocks sitting on top of the purple boxes of Brea, in the yellow part of unincorporated Los Angeles County,” she said. “This is the way we’d always have to explain it. ‘No, we’re not in La Habra Heights.’ It gets so annoying.”

Though many residents are pleased with the opportunity to develop a sense of city identity, their isolation has provided an opportunity to bond over the last few decades.

“We kind of have our own republic,” Al Bertulli said. “These 42 houses were a neighborhood, . . . like our own little territory.”

Being part of a loner community had its benefits.

Residents didn’t have to worry about police ticketing them for parking overnight on the street, which is not allowed in Brea. They didn’t have to worry about police showing up at parties that grew a bit too rowdy.

“There were a bunch of little sneaky things like that people were happy with,” Al Bertulli said.

In 1997, the neighborhood protested when the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office considered ending the contract with Brea police to save about $2,000 a year. Residents didn’t want to wait longer while deputies from Rowland Heights and Walnut drove over the hills for emergencies. The deputies, however, have always included the neighborhood in routine patrols.

Some residents aren’t happy with the slow response from other Los Angeles County emergency services. Raymond Rice said he had to wait 25 minutes for Los Angeles County paramedics to arrive to aid his wife, who fainted last December, suffering from liver disease.

“They’re way over the hill in Rowland Heights,” said Rice, 69.

In wanting to become part of Brea and Orange County, the Midbury residents also considered the economic impact.

Brea city officials researched county taxes and determined residents would save about $175 a year from fewer assessments in Orange County.

But the savings would be plowed right back into street repairs, which will be needed in about five years. Each homeowner is expected to pay $175 a year for the next 15 years to help cover the $175,000 cost for the repairs. Each county also is providing funds.

Real estate appraisers say property values should go up slightly.

“The difference price-wise would be within 5%,” said Glen Kangas, manager at First Appraisal Network in Brea.

“Essentially, the Realtor is going to pick up on the fact it’s in Orange County, rather than just being out there, and push that element,” he said.

The fact that residents would have voting power in Brea and have legitimate access to city services also could boost property values, which average about $300,000 in the area, Kangas said.

For many residents here, though, the money issue isn’t the most important.

“I never had a sense of belonging to Los Angeles County,” Beverly Bertulli said. “We feel like, ‘What took Orange County so long?’ ”