Incorporation underway in other areas

Efforts to create three new cities in Riverside and San Diego counties could leave Fallbrook as a lone unincorporated community anchoring the fast-growing Inland area.

The three incorporation bids – in Wildomar, Menifee and Rancho Santa Fe – have passed key milestones as Fallbrook approaches the 20th anniversary of its last failed push to become a city.

The upcoming anniversary has prompted some Fallbrook leaders to again wonder whether Fallbrook can or will ever become a city.

“I certainly think it’s worth exploring and looking at again,” said Rua Petty, who heads the Rainbow Planning Group and the Rainbow Municipal Water District governing board. “Quite frankly, I think it’s worth looking at.”

Others, including two men who would have served on Fallbrook’s first city council, are hesitant to predict whether incorporation would have benefited the town or if another bid might be launched anytime soon.

“Who can say?” said Charlie Wolk, who would have become Fallbrook’s first mayor had a June 1988 incorporation bid been approved by voters. “There’s too much conjecture, speculation.”

Jim Russell, who received enough votes two decades ago to have joined Wolk on Fallbrook’s first city council, is equally uncertain.

“As with anything, it’s a double-edged sword,” said Russell, who now is chairman of the Fallbrook Community Planning Group. “It’s not all a panacea.”

Wolk, Russell and Roy Hiscock, who was chairman of Fallbrook’s incorporation 20 years ago, say talk surfaces periodically over whether to try again. But no effort has gained traction in recent years, they said in separate telephone interviews.

Sixty percent of Fallbrook residents voted against incorporation two decades ago. That tally was less lopsided than in June 1981, when 77 percent of Fallbrook voters rejected the formation of a proposed city.

The three men say fears of new taxes or rapid growth after incorporation killed the 1988 measure at the polls.

For now, it appears Fallbrook leaders are content to watch as incorporation efforts unfold in the three outlying communities.

Wildomar and Menifee, two fast-growing unincorporated communities in southwest Riverside County, are winding up a decade or more or of feasibility studies, public hearings and other steps aimed at becoming two of California’s newest cities.

In February, about 61 percent of Wildomar residents voted to form Riverside County’s 25th city.

Voters also elected their first city council, which has already met to begin planning for July 1, when the incorporation takes effect.

The new city will be home to about 27,000 residents. Its 24-square-mile perimeter is split by Interstate 15 and flanked by Murrieta and Lake Elsinore.

Menifee voters are preparing for an incorporation vote of their own in June.

If the measure passes, Menifee would become Riverside County’s 26th city on October 8. It would cover approximately 48.5 square miles, much of it split by Interstate 215, and have about 60,500 residents.

Compared to its northern counterparts, Rancho Santa Fe’s incorporation push is a fledgling effort. Residents of that rural San Diego County community, which traces its roots to the 1920s, formed a nonprofit group to try to place an incorporation measure on a future ballot.

In November, the group won approval to begin circulating incorporation petitions. That effort began early this year and is expected to take about six months to complete, said Shirley Anderson, policy research chief of San Diego County’s boundary-setting agency.

If that incorporation drive is successful, Rancho Santa Fe would be home to about 6,500 residents as it becomes San Diego County’s 19th city, she said.

The recent flurry of incorporation activity comes after a long lull in such efforts across the pair of adjacent counties.

Riverside County’s rapid growth in the 1980s spurred the creation of four cities in quick succession. Temecula became a city in December 1989, followed by Canyon Lake and Calimesa one year later. Murrieta became Riverside County’s youngest city in July 1991, records show.

In October 1986, Encinitas became the last city to form in San Diego County, Anderson said. That incorporation came three months after Solana Beach gained municipal status. Before that, Poway and Santee both became cities in December 1980.

Much of the lull in creating new cities was caused by a law passed in the mid-1990s by the state Legislature. That law, which cooled many incorporation efforts across the state, was sought by counties whose revenues were sapped when cities formed around shopping malls, car dealerships and other major sales tax producers.

That law introduced the requirement of “revenue neutrality,” which is aimed at ensuring that the loss of land does not drain county coffers.

Last July, Riverside County supervisors approved a policy that allowed them to factor in costs savings the county would realize when unincorporated communities become cities.

That change was attributed, in part, to broad support there for the concept of community “home rule,” said George J. Spiliotis, executive officer of Riverside County’s Local Agency Formation Commission.

“As far as I know, it’s unique,” Spiliotis said. “Unlike many other counties in the state, Riverside does seem to be very supportive of incorporation efforts.”

Since no cities have formed in San Diego County more than 20 years, Rancho Santa Fe’s incorporation effort could be a test case to determine how revenue neutrality would be implemented there, said Anderson of that county’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO).

Creating cities is often seen as a way to improve police protection and other services, improve a community’s ability to obtain grant funding and to reduce distances that residents must drive to attend meetings on development plans and other local government issues.

Incorporations also allow residents to elect five or more city council members to make recommendations and decisions on their behalf rather than rely on one county supervisor who represents a vast area.

As in Wildomar’s case, incorporation drives are also launched after residents become concerned over annexations by neighboring cities.

Flanked by two rapidly growing cities, Wildomar residents repeatedly complained after chunks of their future tax base were siphoned away by neighboring jurisdictions.

As in many incorporation bids, Rancho Santa Fe residents cite rapid growth and a desire to improve police and parks services as key reasons to form a city.

“In the last 25 years, the surrounding open spaces have filled in with higher density, gated developments,” the incorporation petition states. “With no bypass roads to re-route commuters around the village, traffic has become an increasing headache. The community also lacks neighborhood parks, tot lots and playing fields.”

Because Wildomar and Menifee have large shopping centers and other businesses that provide sales taxes and other needed revenues, both communities would accrue budget surpluses after they become cities, according to financial studies.

Conversely, Rancho Santa Fe has few stores and a low sales tax base. As a result, incorporation proponents have asked residents to approve a 5.5 percent utility tax to augment police, planning and other service costs.

At the time of the June 1988 vote, Fallbrook could have taken over police, planning, recreation, animal control and other key services and still reap more than $840,000 a year in surplus tax revenues, according to a LAFCO report prepared then.

The proposed city would have covered 41 square miles, been home to nearly 26,700 residents and included 116 miles of government-maintained roads.

Fallbrook and the area around it have grown steadily since then.

In 2000, the Fallbrook Community Plan Area totaled about 39,600 residents. The area’s population is expected to increase by 48 percent to 58,624 residents by 2030, according to projections done by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).

By contrast, the population of the Rainbow Community Plan area is expected to grow by 97 percent in the same period to 3,608 residents.

The population of the Bonsall Community Plan Area could climb 57 percent over the 30-year period to 13,914 residents, according to the SANDAG forecast.

Wolk and others say it is hard to gauge whether finances would still be favorable for Fallbrook if another incorporation drive was launched.

Fallbrook lacks new car dealerships and large shopping centers – which pump revenues into city programs – and it is doubtful that residents would approve a new tax to augment existing funds collected from the area, they said.

Wolk also noted that another push would require the formation of a core group, the creation of a new feasibility study, fiscal analysis and other key steps.

“It’d be tough,” he said.