Success and the City

The banners hanging from Aliso Viejo’s light poles advertise what’s important to people here: Top State Schools. Brand New Library. Closer to the Ocean.

On Wednesday, the citizens of one of Orange County’s fastest-growing communities could have added a few more: Local Control Over Tax Dollars. No El Toro Airport.

Here, in the belly of suburbia, an overwhelming majority of voters Tuesday decided Aliso Viejo was more than a collection of red tiled roofs.

They decided it was now a city.

Overnight, everything in Aliso Viejo changed. The people who live here hope that means everything will remain exactly the same.

“This is a sleepy little suburb. An idealistic little area,” said Scott McNulty. “It’s perfect.”

When McNulty looks in the mirror, he sees a reflection of his community. He’s 37, married, the father of two, someone who bought a home in Aliso Viejo because it was a place his family could afford.

“This is a community of young families, lots of kids, lots of babies, newlyweds, people buying their first home,” he said. “People putting roots into the ground who plan to be around for a while.”

That’s McNulty’s plan. He and his wife, in fact, want to move up, trading their townhome for a bigger house in Aliso Viejo.

What they don’t want are jumbo jets flying overhead. Which is what a commercial airport at the closed El Toro Marine Base would bring. Which is why McNulty voted for incorporation.

It’s the same reason Donna Sandidge supports cityhood. She’s 33, married, the mother of two, someone who bought a home in Aliso Viejo because it was a place her family could afford.

She and her husband live in a neighborhood with 19 kids. One mom works away from home. Scooters outnumber cars.

“It’s suburbia USA,” Sandidge said. “It’s all very new and clean. Neat, no graffiti, crime-free. It’s a toss-back to the 1950s. On my cul-de-sac, we all have keys to each other’s homes. When my husband’s out of town, my neighbor cooks dinner for me.”

Sandidge wants from the city of Aliso Viejo just what she has gotten from the development of Aliso Viejo--safety, parks, community events. Just more of it.

“We really rally around families and children,” she said. “Now, we have politics that will be behind that.”

Tom Bakehorn is ready for the politics. He’s president of his homeowners association, and, unlike many of his neighbors and the city’s inaugural council members, believes an airport at El Toro would be a benefit to the community.

“Why would these people be against something that will bring $40 billion to the community?” he said.

He plans on making his voice heard.

“Cityhood will give us a chance to control our own local destiny,” the 51-year-old executive recruiter said.

But even he doesn’t expect the future to look much different from the present. The biggest decisions for Aliso Viejo, master-planned more than two decades ago, have already been cast in stucco.

“Nobody’s going to move in and, say, build a 40-story high-rise,” Bakehorn said. “Its all been done. That’s the beauty of the community.”

For Sara Cross, the beauty of Aliso Viejo is all around her. The clean streets. The convenient shopping centers. The flower beds in the medians that are coiffed just so.

Each Wednesday, she joins a group of mothers who form a stroller brigade at the Aliso Viejo Town Center--the area’s biggest mall.

“The community’s very well-kept,” said Cross, 26, who moved here with her husband and baby last summer from Kansas City, Mo.

The only problem with the move has been explaining to relatives back east precisely where they live. Not being a city, Aliso Viejo isn’t pinpointed on any of the maps they’ve looked at. Not yet.

But as of July 1, when incorporation takes effect, it will be a city. And those maps will officially be out of date.