Art Simonian and low-density blocs ruled 1970s

(Part 2 of a five-part series)

Yorba Linda’s direction as a city really took hold after the second municipal election in 1970 brought a new low-density, slow-growth majority to the City Council. That three-vote majority became unanimous with the election of two more adherents in a spirited 1972 contest.

The 1970 charge was led by low-density advocate George Machado, who earlier was dumped from the first Planning Commission for his slow-growth stance. He was joined by colleagues Rudy Castro and Hank Wedaa, and they immediately began to institute changes.

High on the agenda was a new General Plan, opposed by many large landowners because it down-zoned their property, making the land less valuable to developers. The plan squeaked through the council on a 3-2 vote and was affirmed by voters in a ’72 referendum vote, 2,317 to 1,902.

Among the opponents of the low-density drive was Yorba Linda’s first city manager, Darrel Dalton, who resigned after the 1970 election to take a job with a development firm. Dalton helped lead the failed campaign to ax the plan on the ’72 ballot and lost his bid for a council seat.

According to Machado, the low-density plan was essential to Yorba Linda’s survival.

In 1967, incorporation proponents promised no city property taxes. And Machado thought a low-density city would need fewer police, fire and other services, thus staving off the dreaded tax.

But the new zoning rules created practical problems, such as delaying the annexation of additional eastside land into the city. Developers continued to examine Anaheim’s promises of smaller lots, and county officials didn’t think much of Yorba Linda’s low-density desires.

The ’72 election added Dale Chaput and Carolyn Ewing to the Castro-Machado-Wedaa bloc, but new divisions slowly developed between “no-growth” and “slow-growth” advocates. And some residents began questioning the wisdom of heated debates over 2.75 versus 3.25 units per acre.

While some council members wanted to build a figurative fence around the city and maintain the ’72 boundaries, other members worked to preserve the semi-rural lifestyle by adding more eastside land and applying the city’s low-density, General Plan standards to a larger area.

As the decade wore on, “no-growth” individuals either left the council or adopted a more moderate “slow-growth” stance, and land for the future Eastlake Village project was annexed.

An unintended consequence of the delay in adding eastside property was to create more pressure on the city’s west side, with more people moving in to enjoy the semirural environment.

A major influence on most of the council members of the ’70s – and on their attitudes toward growth – was Art Simonian, who began his record 27-year tenure as city manager in January 1972.

Simonian taught the elected representatives that they might have to compromise to get development to occur in the city at a better standard than if it were left under county regulations.

One of Simonian’s key contributions came in the wake of the statewide passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. Yorba Linda never adopted a city property tax, a selling point that many real estate agents touted in their ads during the ’70s, which like today was an era of ever-increasing home values.

The ballot proposition eliminated the City Council’s ability to institute a property tax, and, for a time, some leaders seriously questioned the future financial stability of the rapidly growing city.

Simonian’s solution involved lobbying Sacramento for special state legislation, which rewarded Yorba Linda with a 10 percent share of all property tax revenue collected in the city.

About $1.5 million was added to city coffers the first year the legislation was effective, and currently nearly $5 million of city revenues comes from the annual property tax allocation.

Simonian’s practical policy of compromise also influenced other individuals elected to the city’s governing body in the ’70s, including Rob Cromwell, Irwin Fried and Doug Groot. And while low-density guidelines remained firmly in place, the council undertook more negotiations with developers.

A FINAL NOTE

Today, many residents who remember the low-density debates of the 1970s are dismayed by the current Council’s actions of stuffing more apartments and small-lot homes in the original Old Town area and envisioning more high-density apartments for the Town Center.

With election challengers Ed Rakochy and Mike Burns questioning the Town Center redevelopment and eminent domain decisions of incumbents Allen Castellano, Mike Duvall and Jim Winder – all seeking second terms on the Nov. 2 ballot – debates about density again will be a major campaign issue.

Recalling the years of struggle for birthing a city

(Part 1 of a five-part series)

Most residents are familiar with the reasons Yorba Lindans in 1967 chose to incorporate as a city: several annexation attempts by surrounding communities and unpopular planning decisions by county officials led to citizens desiring to chart their own course into the future.

Less well-remembered, perhaps, is the long, agonizing court battle to allow residents to vote on incorporation, how close the area came to merging with Anaheim, Brea or Placentia and the raw intensity of political emotions during the city’s fledgling years.

Residents and landowners of the pre-incorporation era saw that a yes vote for cityhood would result in an assortment of winners and losers, for few decisions are truly “win-win” for everybody.

That’s why farm groups representing the area’s growers, longtime landowners, holders of oil and gas leases and the Orange County Board of Supervisors generally favored the status quo. They feared that a city independent of county control would restrict their land-use options.

And they were right. City proponents were mostly the newer residents who purchased homes built in the 1950s and 1960s. They wanted to revise the zoning laws and create a new General Plan to preserve the low-density, semirural environment they found so attractive.

The third and eventually successful attempt to incorporate took four years of courtroom wrangling before a state Supreme Court ruling allowed residents to vote on Oct. 24, 1967.

During the 1963-67 interval between filing for incorporation and setting an election date, voters axed an Anaheim annexation attempt and seriously considered a plan to merge with Placentia.

Interestingly, the Yorba Linda Star editorially supported the Anaheim deal, and Roland Bigonger, who became Yorba Linda’s first mayor, helped negotiate the Placentia proposal.

Key factors in the 1,963 to 638 incorporation victory included limiting the city’s initial boundaries to areas of known supporters and a surprisingly fulfilled promise of no city property taxes.

Members of the first council enjoyed a six-month municipal honeymoon before a bitter resurgence of political infighting. Out of 27 council candidates, voters discovered that, in addition to choosing two individuals who opposed cityhood, they had elected a moderate, growth-oriented governing body.

Council’s approval of an apartment complex – nicknamed “the barracks” – on Yorba Linda Boulevard east of Imperial Highway energized a slate of low-density, slow-growth candidates, who unceremoniously dumped three of the original councilmen in the second election in 1970.

But first, Bigonger, along with Burt Brooks, Whit Cromwell, Bill Ross and Herb Warren, made a number of lasting decisions, resulting in an environment the city still enjoys today.

In a pre-annexation deal, the council compromised with a developer to permit smaller lots than allowed by zoning. They said Anaheim promised the builder even smaller sizes, so they made an adjustment to bring a large eastside area into Yorba Linda’s domain.

Also, the council accepted title to an old water company’s canal right-of-way – the genesis for today’s trail system – rather than allowing it to be ceded to adjacent property owners, as happened in Placentia.

But some residents faulted council members for not challenging Placentia on the commercial property, including a Ford dealership, on Yorba Linda’s western border, thinking a good legal case could be made for including the land and its sales tax revenue in Yorba Linda’s city limits.

However, Yorba Linda’s legal boothill is cluttered with dusty remnants of many “sure bet” lawsuits espoused by various city leaders and political wannabes over the years.

A FINAL NOTE

Much more information on this interesting era in the city’s history can be found in the reference collection at the Yorba Linda Library, 18181 Imperial Highway, which includes a nearly complete run of the weekly editions of the Yorba Linda Star on microfilm.

Also, ask to see Dennis Swift’s “Growing Graciously: An Oral History of Yorba Linda’s Municipal Incorporation,” a project of the oral history program at California State University, Fullerton, completed with help from Yorba Linda’s then library director, CarolAnn Tassios.

Swift’s interviews with Bigonger, Cromwell, Ross and Warren, as well as Bill Drake, Jim Erickson, Roy Knauft, Barbara Machado, Sid Radus and Art Simonian were conducted in 1989.

Although the participants often present conflicting information on the city’s early history and the forces that shaped the community, Yorba Linda is fortunate to have a transcript of these taped interviews, especially since five of the pioneer residents have died since they were interviewed.

And the familiar March Butz volume “Yorba Linda: Its History” is available for checkout. The always optimistic book traces the area’s history through the 1970s.