A group promoting long-sought-after cityhood for La Jolla filled the community’s town council meeting on May 11 on the latest plans to detach from the City of San Diego and become an independent municipality.

La Jolla was incorporated as part of the chartered City of San Diego when California became a state in 1850. La Jolla covers a little more than seven square miles with a population of about 39,000.

This latest iteration of the incorporation drive, which has been going on in fits and starts for many years, is being shepherded by the Association For The City of La Jolla, a nonprofit group.

“We’ve done our due diligence, which is the reason we know this isn’t a fool’s errand,” Association For The City of La Jolla president Trace Wilson told residents. “What’s really important this time around is to let people know that La Jolla incorporating would uplift the economic base for all of San Diego. To make it a win-win, we need to educate all of San Diego that this is not a bad thing but a good thing.”

Pointing out the last incorporation drive in 2005 produced an economic and fiscal impact analysis that showed La Jolla would be viable as a city, Wilson noted, “That’s the first key step to understanding if this is possible.”

He added those previous analysis numbers were done by economist Richard Berkson who is updating that analysis, which could be completed by summer’s end. That previous fiscal analysis is available at cityoflajolla.org.

Wilson noted cityhood has demonstrated widespread popular support. “A year ago at a town council forum, 87% of La Jollans agreed it was a good idea,” he said.

Incorporation is a long and involved process requiring several legal steps with the withdrawing community seeking to become its own municipality working in tandem with their County’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO).

Wilson estimated the preliminary fiscal analysis being redone would cost approximately $60,000 with $55,000 of that amount having already been raised through private donations.

Wilson said La Jolla incorporation could happen “If we are able to lease back from the City police, fire, lifeguard and other public services such as water, trash, and wastewater management.” Initially, at least, Wilson said La Jolla would likely remain within the San Diego Unified School District and keep its own library. Later on, the city of La Jolla could reconsider establishing all public services independent of the City of San Diego. He added the city of La Jolla would have its own elected city council, mayor, city manager, and city attorney.

There are at least two major impediments to La Jolla’s incorporation. One is that it must pass by a simple voter majority both within the boundaries of the proposed city, as well as San Diego as a whole. Successful incorporation also needs to be “revenue neutral.” Revenues the new city receives after incorporating are required to be “substantially equal” to the amount of savings the entity being detached from gets from no longer providing services to it. If that turns out to be unequal, the newly incorporated entity could be required to pay “alimony” for a time to the entity it is detaching from, to compensate it for losses incurred during separation.

The association has produced a map of a future city of La Jolla bounded by Del Mar on the north, I-5 on the east, and the ocean on the west. Turquoise Street adjoining Pacific Beach would be the new La Jolla city’s southern boundary.

The legal and organizational hurdles to be cleared are such that new incorporations in San Diego County have been rare. There have been none since 2000. The last four cities in San Diego County to incorporate were Solana Beach and Encinitas in 1986, and Poway and Santee in 1980.

RULES FOR INCORPORATION

• The incorporating entity must work with the County’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to guide it through the process.

• The legal process for incorporating a new city can be initiated, or started, in three ways: A petition signed by at least 25% of the registered voters verified residing in the proposed incorporation area; a petition signed by at least 25% of the landowners owning at least 25% of the assessed value of land within the proposed incorporation area; or the legislative body of an affected agency can adopt a resolution of application.

• All signatures must be gathered within a six-month period from the date of the first signature. Incorporation petitions must be submitted to LAFCO for filing within 60 days of the date of the last signature on the petition.

• LAFCO must set a public hearing for the incorporation within 90 days.

• Cities can provide services through a “full-service” city providing all municipal level services (fire, police, garbage collection, water, sewer, etc.); or a city can be a contract city, providing many of these services through contract(s) with service providers such as special districts, the county or private companies providing contract municipal services.

• LAFCO cannot approve a proposal for incorporation unless it finds that the amount of revenues the new city receives from the county and affected agencies after incorporation would be substantially equal to the amount of savings the county or the affected agencies would attain from no longer providing services to the proposed incorporation area.

• Elections for incorporation are usually placed on the ballot of the next general election requiring approval by a simple majority of voters both within the boundaries of the area seeking to secede, as well as the City of San Diego as a whole.

Photo by Thomas Melville