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.

Planners have recommended the approval of Lake Forest's annexation of 1,502 acres of commercial and industrial property north of the city. The Local Agency Formation Commission will hold a public hearing today to consider the annexation, which, if approved, would effectively kill Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills' cityhood drive. The annexation would include a 1.

Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills could become a financially sound city, but only by counting on about $1.5 million in sales taxes from the Foothill Ranch Towne Centre, and another $3 million in other local annual revenues, according to a new study. The Foothill Ranch Civic Council will present findings of the feasibility study at a town meeting this morning.

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.

County supervisors will decide next week whether to charge residents of unincorporated areas $185 each time they use paramedic services. The Orange County Fire Authority, which represents the county and 19 cities, already has approved the new fee. Last year, the paramedics provided advanced life-support services to 13,678 patients during transport to emergency rooms. Total cost per call for transport and paramedic services was $184.41, according to authority figures.

A plea from the Bay Knolls neighborhood to be included in Newport Beach's sphere of influence has been rejected by the City Council in a split vote. "It doesn't make sense geographically," Councilman John W. Hedges said. The unincorporated area west of the Upper Newport Bay was originally considered in Newport Beach's sphere, but several years ago it began to fall under Costa Mesa's.

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.

County supervisors will decide next week whether to charge residents of unincorporated areas $185 each time they use paramedic services. The Orange County Fire Authority, which represents the county and 19 cities, already has approved the new fee. Last year, the paramedics provided advanced life-support services to 13,678 patients during transport to emergency rooms. Total cost per call for transport and paramedic services was $184.41, according to authority figures.

A plea from the Bay Knolls neighborhood to be included in Newport Beach's sphere of influence has been rejected by the City Council in a split vote. "It doesn't make sense geographically," Councilman John W. Hedges said. The unincorporated area west of the Upper Newport Bay was originally considered in Newport Beach's sphere, but several years ago it began to fall under Costa Mesa's.

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.