Residents and business owners in the Castaic areas of Hasley Hills, Live Oak, North Bluff and the Valencia Commerce Center have requested that they be annexed into the City of Santa Clarita, regardless of what other areas of the "West Side" may decide to do. The Santa Clarita City Council is set to approve a $35,000 budget tonight to get the ball rolling on this annexation process. At the May 22 Santa Clarita City Council meeting, representatives of the Castaic Annexation Support Team (CAST) presented signatures from about 70% of the residents and other property owners and requested that this annexation process begin immediately. The City's current annexation policy requires signatures from only 60% of the residents and business owners, so the Castaic residents have clearly exceeded this requirement. The $35,000 budget will pay for the annexation and planning services as well as the required State and County fees, as follows: - $16,000 for Map and Legal Description
- $ 4,000 for Fiscal Impact Analysis
- $ 8,500 for LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission for the County of Los Angeles) fees
- $ 3,500 for State Board of Equalization fees
- $ 2,000 for required notifications
- $ 1,000 for miscellaneous expenditures
The annexation process requires many steps and is expected to take about a year. Included in this process are a fiscal impact analysis to analyze revenues and expenditures, public hearings, the adoption of a general plan amendment, preparation of environmental documentation including a proposed sphere of influence amendment, and approval by LAFCO for the annexation. A map of the proposed Castaic annexation area can be found here. Opposing this annexation process are members of the West Ranch Town Council, who favor a more "united" approach to the West Side's future, preferably as a new city instead of being part of the City of Santa Clarita. This whole thing has turned into a pretty nasty online turf war, with Dave Bossert slamming this process every chance he gets. What Bossert and others seem to forget is that the residents of the Castaic area started this process themselves by initiating a campaign to collect signatures favoring annexation starting two years ago. And they also seem to forget that forming a new city will not keep Los Angeles County from skimming off the reported $20 million of excess funds collected from the West Side to support their unaccounted-for pet projects in other parts of the County. Only annexation into an existing city (as in the City of Santa Clarita) can keep those funds local unless the rules change at the State level. Still, Bossert continues his online rant about the unfairness of this proposal, apparently forgetting that it was initiated by the Castaic area residents themselves. Castaic Area Town Council members have also expressed concern, stating that annexing only part of Castaic would be "cherry picking". Could it be that these local town councils are more concerned about their personal political agendas than the desires of their residents? Scary thought, isn't it? |
