A few days ago I met a resident of the Stevenson Ranch community, will call him “Bob”, and we had a nice conversation about the real estate market. Bob asked me, in the midst of this pleasant discussion about homes for sale, what the deal was with annexation. He was interested in knowing why we didn’t just annex so his kids could be treated as equals in regards to the City of Santa Clarita parks programs.

I asked him what he knew about annexation and he admitted that he knew very little. So I told him that was the point, the majority of the West Ranch community knows little or nothing about the whole question of annexation. I told him that the West Ranch Town Council has been trying to gather up information on the three options that the community has; annexation, city hood, and staying as is in the County. He was surprised that the community had options and agreed that the more un-biased information he could get the better he would be able to make a decision.

I pointed out to Bob that it is not a simple decision because there are so many services that the West Ranch area receives daily, weekly and monthly that our community needs to make a thorough comparison. This is something that our town council has been attempting to do over the years but it seems that it has gone in fits and starts with the City. It appears that every time we have sat down with the City to ask questions the meetings never seem to continue. At some point issues or items get brought up that the City just doesn’t even want to discuss.

One of the items that the City doesn’t want to talk about is the Mello-Roos bonds that many in the West Ranch area are paying off. By the way, a Mello-Roos bond issue allows for financing of public improvements and services. The services and improvements that Mello-Roos can finance include streets, sewer systems and other basic infrastructure improvements like, parks, libraries, museums and/or other cultural facilities. Bob had initially thought that the Mello-Roos bonds were for financing the schools and was surprised to learn that these bonds were actually used to put in the infrastructure in the community including the widening of the over passes at Lyons Ave and McBean Parkway.

I asked Bob a simple question, if you bought a new car and financed it over a 4 year period and two years into the payments were told to give that car to a stranger but continue to make the car payments for the remaining two years, would you? He said no, of course not! Think of the Mello-Roos bonds in the same way, why would you give the community away for nothing but continue to pay for the infrastructure? It just seems logical that we would talk about this issue.

But wait a second, not every one in the West Ranch communities is paying off a Mello-Roos bond! That’s right, some neighborhoods had the infrastructure costs amortized into the price of their homes and that certainly needs to be taken into consideration. That would have to be part of the discussion which would be adding to our collective education.

Bob realized at the end of our conversation that the question of annexation was a complex one and that our community does need to get much more information. This is something that the West Ranch Town Council has been having many conversations about with the County, LAFCO and the City over the years. It is a shame that the City keeps breaking off talks and instead tries to circumvent the Town Council and community when ever possible. That behavior is only prolonging the process and in turn making it increasingly more difficult to count annexation as an option.

Just as a reminder, it was about 5 or so years ago that Councilman Frank Ferry told the West Ranch Town Council that if we didn’t annex, the City would bury us! Still haven’t felt any shovels full of dirt dropping down on us yet………………….