The Annexation of La Cañada Flintridge

Before the incorporation of La Cañada Flintridge in 1976, “annexation” was a nasty word around these parts.

As the community was considering cityhood for the three years prior to the successful election, three more nasty words appeared, this time from Sacramento: “Sphere of Influence.” The State Legislature was proposing to confer more power on the L.A. County Local Agency Formation Commission, which deals in all annexation and incorporation matters.

For example, Assembly Bill 813, introduced by Democrat John T. Knox in 1971, would place all unincorporated areas in L.A. County like LCF under a “sphere of influence” of neighboring cities.

It meant that Pasadena and Glendale could propose to slice up LCF as they saw fit in anticipation of a broader and fatal move against the local community -- which they did.

Pasadena wanted all of Flintridge and a section of La Cañada running east of Alta Canyada Road to the Arroyo Seco, north of Foothill Boulevard.

Glendale would pick up the rest, including a prize plum, Descanso Gardens.

AB 813 made it through the Assembly but was killed by the Senate after being amended and weakened by the latter house.

But unsure about a future bill, La Cañadans got Flintridge to join them in a cityhood drive, thus setting the stage for the successful 1976 election. LCF escaped the clutches of Pasadena and Glendale on Nov. 2 when the vote went better than 2 1/2-1 for incorporation and local control.

This wasn’t the first time that LCF was threatened with annexation, however.

In 1961, two pieces of Assembly legislation pushing annexation by cities were blocked in committee.

Again in 1965, two Assembly bills threatening the existence of unincorporated areas also bit the dust by committee action.

That same year, however, La Cañada lost 15 acres to Glendale so the Verdugo Hills Hospital could be built. Local County Supervisor Warren Dorn urged the Glendale annexation, which the County Local Agency Formation Commission approved, so a much-needed Foothill area hospital with sewers could come in.

Also in 1965, a request by a developer to acquire 1 1/2 acres in Flintridge to complete his 140-home tract on the Glendale side of the boundary was defeated. It took LAFCO only 15 minutes to decide. The land being sought was between Wendover Road (west of the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy) and the city boundaries of Glendale and Pasadena.

Assemblyman Knox, not giving up, came back with another annexation bill in 1975. It was a duplicate of his ill-fated legislation four years earlier. It met the same rejection.

In all but one of these annexation cases threatening LCF, it was the steadfast efforts of La Cañada Assemblyman Frank Lanterman that doomed each proposal.

La Cañada gained in one annexation case in 1960 when the county approved the addition of 134 square miles in Angeles National Forest to the local school district so children in seven forest areas could attend schools here.

The annexation move affected four area school districts -- Pasadena giving up 23 square miles, Soledad 90 square miles, Sierra Madre 18.9 square miles and Glendale l.9 square miles of uninhabited land. Twenty elementary-age children would now come under La Cañada’s school wing. The district built Chilao Mountain School in 1964 for that purpose.

The annexation move had been petitioned by the Angeles Crest Parents Assn., representing the forest residents.

In approving the annexation, the county felt that La Cañada could best serve that forest area as it was directly adjacent to the area served by Angeles Crest Highway.

In that action, size of the once small La Cañada school district grew 1200% in one fell swoop, going from nine square miles to 143.

(Don Mazen is a longtime local journalist and author of “The History of La Cañada Flintridge.”)