ELECTIONS / ANTELOPE VALLEY : Voters Favor Creating Flood-Control Agency

Antelope Valley residents will face continued danger from flooding for years to come because voters opted to create their own flood-control agency and defeated a Lancaster flood-control tax measure, officials said Wednesday.

The defeat of the Lancaster measure in Tuesday’s election means that the city will not get millions of extra dollars each year to build more flood-control projects. And because valley voters decided not to join the county’s flood-control district, creating the new agency will also mean more delays.

In semiofficial election returns, Lancaster residents defeated city Measure E by a 73% margin. It would have assessed all property owners in the city to pay for flood-control projects. Typical homeowners would have paid $25 in the first year, with subsequent rates to vary.

Jeff Long, city public works director, said the defeat was probably due to a combination of unwillingness by recession-weary voters to approve a new tax and some residents’ belief that existing flood-control efforts have been progressing quickly enough.

Valleywide, those who voted on county advisory Measure B expressed, by a 45% to 25% margin, a preference for the region to have its own flood-control agency rather than joining the county district.

Although establishing a new agency, which requires action by the state Legislature, may be more responsive to local concerns, it also will take several years longer to start any projects than if voters had opted to join with the county operation, said a spokesman for Supervisor Mike Antonovich.