Unincorporated Areas Orange County

Over vociferous objections from residents of two neighboring communities, the Lake Forest City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to proceed with plans to annex a shopping center in an unincorporated area north of town. The council now will seek permission from the Local Agency Formation Commission, a county governmental body that oversees annexations and incorporations, to annex Foothill Ranch Towne Centre, a 1.2-million-square-foot mall with annual sales tax revenue of about $2 million.

From her front room window, Gloria Lopez has seen her Colonia Independencia neighborhood age through the past half century. "I moved here in 1945, and I remember that some of the houses then were nothing but small, wood-framed homes built from the lumber off old railroad boxcars," said Lopez, former director of Colonia's community center.

An agreement allowing the city to take over the Garden Grove Sanitary District will force residents of an unincorporated county island to be annexed--a move the residents don't like. Mary Solomon, owner of one of the 350 homes near Dale Street and Lampson Avenue that soon will become part of Garden Grove, said that she and many of her neighbors bought there to avoid living in an incorporated city. "The people are upset because they feel their vote has been taken away from them," she said.

Orange County supervisors approved a plan Tuesday to use $500,000 for revitalizing at least eight unincorporated neighborhoods where residents have complained about run-down houses, abandoned vehicles, gangs and crime. The county, for the first time in recent memory, is putting together a task force of agencies to attack all the major problems in a coordinated fashion. The task force consists of the sheriff, probation, planning, housing and social services agencies.

Orange County supervisors approved a plan Tuesday to use $500,000 for revitalizing at least eight unincorporated neighborhoods where residents have complained about run-down houses, abandoned vehicles, gangs and crime. The county, for the first time in recent memory, is putting together a task force of agencies to attack all the major problems in a coordinated fashion. The task force consists of the sheriff, probation, planning, housing and social services agencies.

City planners are studying the possibility of annexing the North Tustin area, a prospect that many residents in the unincorporated area of Orange County don't like. Mayor Tracy Wills Worley, who directed city staff to study the issue, said the idea was prompted by a letter from county Supervisor Don Saltarelli, who suggested that the two communities might benefit from becoming a single entity.

The city's four-year effort to annex unincorporated land to its northwest may be approaching a successful conclusion. The City Council said this week that it has a tentative agreement with Orange County on how tax revenue from the area would be distributed. Under the proposal, the city would keep all sales tax income--about $1.3 million a year--from the area, which has a large number of retail operations. The county would keep about 84% of the area's property taxes.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is expected to give final approval to a plan by Laguna Hills to annex a 1.5-square-mile unincorporated community to the north of the city. City and county representatives last week completed negotiations on the annexation, which Laguna Hills officials have sought for four years. Most of the negotiations dealt with the legal wording of the agreement and on how the two government entities would divide tax revenue from the area, known as North Laguna Hills.

Few people received a bigger jolt from Orange County's December 1994 plunge into bankruptcy than the 180,000 residents of its unincorporated communities, who rely solely on county government for basic services such as policing, public works and code enforcement. Nineteen months later, the Sheriff's Department continues to patrol the pockets of county land not claimed by any city, and the crime rate remains level.

From her front room window, Gloria Lopez has seen her Colonia Independencia neighborhood age through the past half century. "I moved here in 1945, and I remember that some of the houses then were nothing but small, wood-framed homes built from the lumber off old railroad boxcars," said Lopez, former director of Colonia's community center.

Over vociferous objections from residents of two neighboring communities, the Lake Forest City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to proceed with plans to annex a shopping center in an unincorporated area north of town. The council now will seek permission from the Local Agency Formation Commission, a county governmental body that oversees annexations and incorporations, to annex Foothill Ranch Towne Centre, a 1.2-million-square-foot mall with annual sales tax revenue of about $2 million.

City planners are studying the possibility of annexing the North Tustin area, a prospect that many residents in the unincorporated area of Orange County don't like. Mayor Tracy Wills Worley, who directed city staff to study the issue, said the idea was prompted by a letter from county Supervisor Don Saltarelli, who suggested that the two communities might benefit from becoming a single entity.

An agreement allowing the city to take over the Garden Grove Sanitary District will force residents of an unincorporated county island to be annexed--a move the residents don't like. Mary Solomon, owner of one of the 350 homes near Dale Street and Lampson Avenue that soon will become part of Garden Grove, said that she and many of her neighbors bought there to avoid living in an incorporated city. "The people are upset because they feel their vote has been taken away from them," she said.

Few people received a bigger jolt from Orange County's December 1994 plunge into bankruptcy than the 180,000 residents of its unincorporated communities, who rely solely on county government for basic services such as policing, public works and code enforcement. Nineteen months later, the Sheriff's Department continues to patrol the pockets of county land not claimed by any city, and the crime rate remains level.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is expected to give final approval to a plan by Laguna Hills to annex a 1.5-square-mile unincorporated community to the north of the city. City and county representatives last week completed negotiations on the annexation, which Laguna Hills officials have sought for four years. Most of the negotiations dealt with the legal wording of the agreement and on how the two government entities would divide tax revenue from the area, known as North Laguna Hills.

The city's four-year effort to annex unincorporated land to its northwest may be approaching a successful conclusion. The City Council said this week that it has a tentative agreement with Orange County on how tax revenue from the area would be distributed. Under the proposal, the city would keep all sales tax income--about $1.3 million a year--from the area, which has a large number of retail operations. The county would keep about 84% of the area's property taxes.

The Yorba Linda Water District is holding an open house May 1 so the public can view its water care facilities. The event will take place from 8 a.m. to noon at the Richfield Plant in Placentia, where six of the district's eight water wells are located. Organizers will demonstrate the plant's technology, including the use of water pipelines, a new sewer cleaning machine and techniques used to create drought-tolerant landscaping. Refreshments and take-home materials will be provided.

The City Council this week unanimously approved a request by Orange Coast Yellow Cab to increase taxicab rates for trips originating from the city. Under the new rates, retroactive to Jan. 5, waiting time charges increased by $2, to $22 an hour. The fare for the first one-sixth mile is $1.90 and 30 cents for each additional one-sixth mile. Previously, the fare was $1.90 for the first one-eighth mile and 20 cents for each additional one-eighth mile.