North Tustin Weighs Merits of Cityhood : One Group Pushes for Incorporation, Another Studies Options

Residents of North Tustin are lining up for a battle over whether to remain an unincorporated part of the county, become a separate city or become part of the cities of Orange or Tustin.

Two groups have been formed to examine the issue of cityhood, and petitions are being circulated in the area, which has about 20,000 registered voters. Wednesday night the Committee to Incorporate North Tustin met to plot strategy.

Spokeswoman Bea Foster said the group will attempt to gather about 6,000 signatures by Feb. 27 calling for a new city in the area. Those signatures would be submitted to the county Local Agency Formation Commission in an effort to put the issue to a vote next November.

Another group, North Tustin Tomorrow, is conducting a study of the options. Spokesman Ralph Provost said a firm has yet to be selected to conduct the study and stressed that his group has taken no position.

Should Foster’s group be successful in its petition drive, North Tustin Tomorrow would continue with its study, Provost said, adding that it probably will be completed in April. “We’d still need the results of the study in order for people to make an intelligent decision (in November),” he said.

Foster said two of her concerns with annexation by either Orange or Tustin would be the probability of accompanying industrial development and freeway construction. She said her group hopes to retain a semblance of the area’s rural atmosphere.

Orange City Manager J. William Little said his city plans to send letters to all households within its sphere of influence, or about a third of the North Tustin area. The letters will state that Orange officials are aware of the talk of incorporation, will not aggressively pursue annexation but will welcome residents in if they wish to join the city, Little said.

He argued that annexation would provide the residents with Orange’s existing facilities and avoid the potential of high taxes because of a lack of a commercial or industrial tax base in the area. He added that Orange is planning a new police and fire substation on the eastern edge of the city that could serve those residents.

In Tustin, there are no such plans to encourage annexation, City Manager William A. Huston said. The city has its hands full with development in its eastern sectors, Huston said, and is really only interested in annexing areas that would make logical boundaries, such as “islands” or areas that square off the city’s borders.

If citizens call for it, the city would be responsive but will not instigate action, he said.