Huntington votes to annex Sunset

Emotions ran high as Huntington Beach voted late Monday night to annex the neighboring beach-side community of Sunset Beach.

The City Council voted 5 to 2 to direct staff to complete its application with the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to annex Sunset Beach, the city’s northern neighbor along Pacific Coast Highway, with Mayor Cathy Green and Mayor Pro Tem Jill Hardy voting against it.

“We know,” said Councilman Joe Carchio “We see the handwriting on the wall. I think that we would do a great disservice to you guys if we didn’t annex you to Huntington. We would have you guys wasting $130,000.”

The residents shouted down “no” to the council as Carchio spoke, stating they wanted the chance to try.

“I know you don’t want to hear it and no matter what we say, it’s not going to change your mind because you’re so emotional about it,” Carchio said.

The 85-acre unincorporated area of about 1,300 was placed under Huntington’s sphere of influence about a year ago by LAFCO in an effort to decrease the number of county “islands” — the generally small, unincorporated areas that were hard to serve, such as Sunset and nearby Rossmoor.

Sunset Beach’s possibility of becoming its own city isn’t financially feasible and to allow them to continue on the difficult process and spend another $100,000 when the “writing is on the wall,” would be irresponsible, the council said.

“We know at the end of the day, it means annexation either way,” said Councilman Don Hansen.

A peer-commissioned review of Sunset’s incorporation possibilities showed it infeasible without levying a 10% utility users tax and installing parking meters and even then, it wouldn’t work over time.

Sunset Beach resident Diana Dodson said those numbers were based on a preliminary study and LAFCO should have been allowed to make the final decision.

“It’s shocking that they would just determine the future and predict the future,” Dodson said. “That’s LAFCO’s place to determine the feasibility.”

Absorbing Sunset is expected to bring in about $444,000 from various sources including property, sales and transient occupancy taxes, Deputy City Administrator Paul Emery said.

Sunset Beach residents, and a few Huntington Beach residents, packed the Council Chambers, spilling out into adjoining rooms. The majority of the room stood up to show their opposition to annexation.

Huntington Beach’s philosophy is much different than that of Sunset, one resident said. The community doesn’t want big building, parking meters or bars, another resident said.

The real issue though, is the people of Sunset Beach don’t get to decide their own destiny which goes against the principles this country was founded on, said Renee Ellerbroeck, a former Sunset Beach resident.

What is really at issue today is whether or not the Huntington Beach City Council has the legal authority to decide the future of a community they do no govern,” she said.

While the majority spoke against annexation, a handful of Sunset Beach residents spoke in favor of becoming part of Huntington.

Incorporation would cause an unsustainable tax burden on Sunset Beach residents, which would have to contract out most of its services, said Tim McCormack, the vice president of the Sunset Beach Community Assn.

Several of the residents who spoke in favor of annexation said they would like to incorporate, but financially it is not feasible.

“While my heart says we would love to become our own city, my head says it is not possible,” McCormack said.

The community will have to regroup and decide what its next step is, said Greg Griffin, the association’s president.

The community has raised more than $150,000 for the incorporation process and was prepared to submit the final $100,000 to begin the final comprehensive fiscal analysis.

While Sunset has started the incorporation process, LAFCO could not deny Huntington’s application to annex, only amend it, said Carolyn Emery, an assistant executive officer with LAFCO overseeing Sunset Beach.

Legally, LAFCO has to look at other options before it considers the complex process of forming a new city, she said.

Griffin has said the community could consider challenging the legality of automatically allowing Huntington to annex.

The community had already completed its own preliminary fiscal analysis, which was favorable, and gathered the signatures of about 52% of residents supporting incorporation.

Since the community was placed in Huntington’s sphere of influence, it has been trying to figure out how to stay independent, but in the past year, the majority of residents have given up on remaining unincorporated, Griffin has said.

“We were part of the county for 105 years, and we were comfortable being a part of the county,” he said.

When the realization hit, Sunset turned to Seal Beach to annex it, but the Seal Beach City Council vetoed the idea. Since then, Sunset has been polling, raising money, sending out mailings and learning the ins and outs of LAFCOs processes for incorporation.

Sunset residents are concerned about Huntington redeveloping their community and building it up and out, and that their 1,300 voices will get lost in Huntington’s 201,000.

“We don’t feel that we would be represented there,” Griffin has said. “We want to represent ourselves.”