Some boundaries blur for Orange and L.A. counties
Quirky divide splits some neighborhoods, even some individual properties. An O.C. commission addresses the troublesome areas, and hopes to start an inter-county dialogue.
Bill Yee doesn't have far to go to cross county lines.
Sitting on the couch in his living room, he's in Los Alamitos in Orange County. But when Yee steps into his backyard, he enters new territory: Long Beach, in Los Angeles County.
"It's no big deal," says Yee, 74, who pays property tax to both jurisdictions.
Not everyone straddling county boundaries agrees, citing a host of problems including confused letter carriers, entangled service providers, misdirected emergency calls, mixed-up voter registration and nightmarish school district boundaries.
Now, Orange County is considering tackling the problem head on. The county's Local Agency Formation Commission is presenting a report today to the Board of Supervisors outlining myriad border skirmishes in the gray area where Orange and Los Angeles counties meet.
Most of the misaligned properties are along Coyote Creek, the flood control channel that forms a natural barrier between the northern edge of one jurisdiction and the southern edge of the other. Instead of following the creek, however, the counties' boundaries zigzag, creating a hodgepodge of intersecting pockets and islands that bisect housing complexes and, in some cases, individual properties.
Cities affected on the Orange County side are Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Placentia and Los Alamitos. Those on Los Angeles County's end are La Mirada, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood and Long Beach.
Orange County officials hope today's report will initiate a dialogue with their neighbors aimed at adjusting boundaries they deem nonsensical.
"These things seem to be lingering and hanging out there," said John Moorlach, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, who said he became interested in the problem while working with residents on other issues. "Let's see if we can clean this up; maybe we can do a little Monopoly and trade title cards."
A spokesman for Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, whose 4th District includes much of that county's southern border, said the supervisor hadn't taken a position on the matter.
"He's not 100% against the idea and not 100% for it," David Sommers said. "At this point, it's kind of wait-and-see until we know more about it. We need more information before coming to a conclusion about what's in the best interests of the residents he represents."
Officials on both sides of the border say they're not sure how things got so tangled.
