The Los Alamitos City Council on Monday voted to establish an Ad Hoc Subcommittee “to consider issues regarding the Sphere of Influence, potential service delivery concepts and potential annexation issues related to Rossmoor.” The committee members are Mayor Marilyn Poe and Councilmember Troy Edgar.

With Huntington Beach moving to take over Sunset Beach – against the apparent wishes of many community members – this might be the year for more movement toward annexation in West OC. The official position of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and of District 2 Supervisor John Moorlach, is for the county to divest of the unincorporated areas like Sunset Beach and Rossmoor. The difference between these two “islands” is that the residents of Rossmoor would get a voice. The residents of Sunset Beach, because it is such a small area, don’t get a say.

Even though annexation of Rossmoor was listed as one of the subjects for the city’s subcommittee, Councilmember Edgar told OC180NEWS “I think that’s very premature, that isn’t what we’re focused on right now at all.”

Nevertheless, Rossmoor is in the “Sphere of Influence” of Los Alamitos. What does sphere of influence mean? “It actually means that our commission {Local Agency Formation Commission, aka LAFCO} has made a determination that the City of Los Alamitos is the most logical service provider to the area,” Carolyn Emery, Assistant Executive Officer, LAFCO, told OC180NEWS. “It also means the only city that could annex the community of Rossmoor is Los Alamitos.”

When the residents of Sunset Beach were put into the sphere of influence of Huntington Beach, a move by Huntington Beach to annex the small beachfront community followed a few months later. In a vain attempt to ward off Huntington Beach, some of the sunset Beach residents petitioned Seal Beach to take them in.

Seal Beach wasn’t interested because of concerns about the financial impact.

The financial impact on annexing cities can be positive if they get more in receipts from retail sales taxes and commercial property taxes than they spend on city services for residents. Thus, retail areas generate more financial positives, while residential areas can have a negative impact. The only portion of Rossmoor which is revenue generating commercial land is the north east corner of Katella and Los Alamitos Blvd.

“Does Los Al want Rossmoor? I think that they have said it enough times, that in order to secure that intersection of Katella and Los Alamitos {Blvd.}, in totality that they would have to annex Rossmoor,” Henry Taboada, General Manager of the Rossmoor Community Services District, told us.

“If the City of Los Alamitos proposes to annex just that corner, which would be that commercial area, only that corner would have the opportunity to vote,” said LAFCO’s Emery.
But, “it would be looked at as a whole, they would not just look at the commercial area even if the city proposed that.”

But, according to Troy Edgar, all Los Al is trying to do is update their general plan, not take over Rossmoor. “When they update their general plan, which is what they’re in the process of doing, they are required to include whatever plans they have for that community {Rossmoor},” said Rick Frances, Chief of Staff for Supervisor Moorlach.

“You update the general plan every 8 to 10 years,” said Edgar. “We just want to account for a change that happened in the last few years,” i.e. establishing the sphere of influence over Rossmoor.

At the previous Los Alamitos City Council meeting Mayor Poe indicated Los Al did not want to do anything about Rossmoor that those residents did not want.

“Just as the community spoke loudly against incorporation, “said Henry Taboada. “The thought is that they would speak just as loudly against annexation.”