A majority of voting residents of Island Village recently cast their ballots and their lot with the city of Seal Beach. During a 10-day voting period that ended on Tuesday, Dec. 1, roughly 80 percent of Island Villagers indicated they would like their gated community to become part of the city of Seal Beach.
While geographically located on the Seal Beach side of the San Gabriel River, the Island Village community is legally on the Los Angeles County side of the border and lies within the city limits of Long Beach.
According to John Bahorski, an Island Village resident and former Seal Beach city manager, a committee looking into the possibility of having Seal Beach annex the gated community had both registered voters and property owners consider the issue. Bahorski is a member of that committee.
Bahorski did not have precise figures in front of him when he spoke with the Sun Newspapers on Monday, Dec. 7. However, he said the majority favored annexation to Seal Beach.
He said he would put the figure at 80 percent or more of those who voted.
Bahorski said the vote represented a 64 percent return.
“I’m not sure how we’re going to proceed from here,” he said.
The Seal Beach City Council agreed to be open to talks about annexation, subject to financial analysis.
However, recent news reports indicate the Long Beach City Council opposes the annexation.
Island Village is isolated in a predominantly industrial area of Long Beach. There are no other residential communities nearby. The nearest police station with jurisdiction is near Cal State Long Beach.
The Orange County LAFCO has been looking at re-drawing the boundary between the counties of Los Angeles and Orange. That decision—and the future zip code of Island Village—would be up to the supervisor boards of both counties.
