Council halts annexation bid

By Rebecca Unger
Hi-Desert Star


Jim Harvey, president of the Homestead Valley Community Council, speaks for the member associations.


YUCCA VALLEY — The Yucca Valley Town Council voted 4-0-1, Mayor Frank Luckino recusing himself, to withdraw its application to include unincorporated Yucca Mesa in its sphere of influence Tuesday night.

For the past year, the Town has faced increasing criticism by Yucca Mesa residents for what they perceived as Yucca Valley’s secrecy in filing the application with the San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission.

Mesa resident Elizabeth Karman formed the Stop Yucca Mesa Annexation Coalition and peppered the countryside with red “Stop” signs. She urged the mesa and surrounding communities to fight the application process, winning hearts and minds with images of towering streetlights, cheek-to-jowl housing developments and lanes of 18 wheelers where the two-lane blacktop of Old Woman Springs Road fades into the horizon.

Karman said five years ago she and her husband moved to the mesa to avoid the “urbanization” of Yucca Valley.

“In 2008 we were startled to discover that an effort to extend a sphere of influence on the mesa was already under way,” she told the Town Council. “We were offended that relatively few people knew about this.”

The grassroots organizer told of collecting 2,400 signatures against the application and conducting a survey. Karman stated that per the survey, 99.5 percent of the mesa’s residents do not want to be part of the Town of Yucca Valley.

“We don’t want to share your problems by being forced to help solve them,” Karman said.

“We will never want to be a part of you, and we will always reject you as our government. We love our mesa!” she declared.

Her sentiments were expressed by the next several speakers.

The Homestead Valley Community Council, the umbrella organization for citizens of Yucca Mesa, Flamingo Heights, Landers and Johnson Valley, took up the cause, and President Jim Harvey spoke on their behalf Tuesday.

“We believe that putting Yucca Mesa into the Town of Yucca Valley’s designated sphere of influence would have a far-reaching detrimental effect on the collective interests of the four HVCC communities, and on the established effectiveness and cohesiveness of the council that represents them,” said Harvey.

Local Agency Formation Commission Executive Officer Kathleen Rollings-McDonald gave a presentation explaining the effects of a sphere of influence before the meeting was opened for public comment. She stayed to answer technical questions from the council members when public comment closed.

She gave councilman Bill Neeb the details of the complicated voting process that would have to take place before a true annexation of borders would be possible.

“If Yucca Valley removes its application for sphere of influence, does that mean that LAFCO will stop working in that area?” asked Neeb.

“We have to complete the service review and we are mandated by law to do so. We will evaluate that sphere of influence,” Rollings-McDonald replied.

The Town’s involvement in the sphere of influence began when the county consolidated fire districts and county officials suggested Yucca Valley annex the mesa into its sphere of influence to follow other districts’ boundaries.

The council followed the suggestion, much to some mesa residents’ dismay.

“I believe that quality of life has to do with our relationships with our neighbors,” said councilwoman Lori Herbel.

“I’m hopeful that whatever happens, we will all continue to be neighbors, because we don’t know when we’re going to need each other.”

However, Herbel also understood the Yucca Mesa residents want to be left alone. “With that, I would support the withdrawal of the sphere of influence,” she said.

Sympathizing with the public’s general mistrust of government, Mayor Pro Tem Chad Mayes admitted the Town “didn’t do a very good job” of meeting with Yucca Mesa residents to explain the sphere-of-influence process.

“I think it is appropriate at this time for the Town of Yucca Valley to withdraw its application,” Mayes said in agreement with Herbel.

Luckino was absent from the proceedings, calling it a “perceived conflict of interest.” He is the chief financial officer of the Hi-Desert Water District, and the Town’s sphere of influence would have included the area currently serviced by the water district.

“It’s not illegal; it’s more how it’s perceived,” Luckino said.

Town files for mesa annexation

by Rebecca Unger
Hi-Desert Star



The proposed Yucca Mesa annexation area is shown in dark green. The current northern Yucca Vally town boundary is shown in light green.



YUCCA MESA — Tensions have been running high for months in the unincorporated community of Yucca Mesa, as some folks brace for what they call a takeover by their neighbor to the south, the Town of Yucca Valley.

On March 30, the Town filed an application with the county Local Agency Formation Commission to expand its sphere of influence to shadow that of the Hi-Desert Water District.

It was the formal move toward annexation that Yucca Mesa residents have been bracing for for months.

The annexation would place 14,348 acres of the mesa into the Town’s sphere of influence in a boundary extending east to Sunny Vista Road in the unincorporated area more associated with Joshua Tree.

Andy Takata, Yucca Valley’s town manager, reminded the citizens of the mesa that physical annexation into Yucca Valley is ultimately up to them. Should things ever progress that far, Yucca Mesa would have to vote to approve the annexation.

“It could make sense in 20 years,” observed Takata, reaffirming the expense of taking on the service needs of the mesa, “but fiscally, it doesn’t make sense right now.”

Kathleen Rollings-McDonald is the executive director of LAFCO, and confirmed this week that the wheels of municipal review grind slowly.

“We don’t expect a hearing anytime before the next four months,” she said.

A Yucca Valley review last August figured the annexation would add approximately 1,148 households in the mesa to the Town Council’s sphere of influence.

According to the county, adding an area into a sphere of influence indicates a government plans at some point in the future to fully annex that area into its boundaries.

The annexation of the mesa would represent a 14.2 percent increase in Yucca Valley’s population and a 56.3 percent increase in land area.

Suggestion began with fire study

The sphere of influence annexation process started in August of 2005 when San Bernardino County sought to consolidate some fire districts and sent that request to the Local Agency Formation Commission. LAFCO recommended that the Yucca Valley Fire Protection District included expansion.

At the same time, the commission recommended the Town of Yucca Valley annex Yucca Mesa, which is in the Yucca Valley fire district, into the Town sphere of influence.

When mesa residents first got wind of the plan last August, the Yucca Mesa Improvement Association sent Jim Sammons to the Town Council. To many on the mesa, the initial process signaled intent by Yucca Valley to physically annex the area.

“We don’t want to be involved with the Town if we can help it,” said Sammons.

“I’m not sure Yucca Valley wants Yucca Mesa,” Councilman Chad Mayes said in humor. Mayes was referring to findings that the Town would have to pony up about $600,000 a year to take over services for the mesa that are currently provided by the county.

Mayes made it a point to go on record with Yucca Valley’s position: “We don’t see annexation in the near future.”

However, the independent firm that studied annexation for the Town was “unequivocal” in its assessment that the Town could extend and improve the level and quality of municipal services to the mesa.

The review envisioned the creation of a district to collect special assessments and maintain roads.

‘We don’t want to be destroyed’

Since the council meeting of Aug. 28, the citizens of the mesa have mobilized.

During the November elections, petitions against the annexation were available for signature at Yucca Mesa’s polling site, and thanks to that and other petition events, the signature count is now up to 2,200.

Their impassioned protests for independence have reached a broad audience, garnering support from fellow Homestead Valley Community Council members from Flamingo Heights, Landers and Johnson Valley. They’ve also shared their concerns with the Morongo Basin Conservation Association.

Elizabeth Karman is the new voice for the recently formed Stop Yucca Mesa Annexation Coalition.

“It feels like a train is about to run over us,” stated Karman. “They’re trying to do this very sneaky. They think we’re stupid and they can just take us over. We’re not stupid, we’re hard-working people, and we don’t want to be destroyed by Yucca Valley.”

The coalition’s fears, as articulated on its Web site, are that LAFCO may require the Town to pre-zone the sphere of influence area, “which could include industrialization and tract homes on small lots.”

The nightmare scenario continues with paving over of dirt roads and mandatory sewer connections “at the residents’ expense,” bright street lights, signs and traffic signals polluting the dark skies, and a prohibition against keeping horses and other ranch animals.