The Los Alamitos Planning Commission voted 4-2 on Monday, Aug 22, to add the Rossmoor Village shopping center, the so-called “fourth corner,” to the city’s General Plan.
Some Rossmoor residents and officials see the decision as a prelude to annexation of the business district by Los Alamitos.
“The decision to annex or not to annex will be that of the City Council,” according to a staff report by Steven A. Mendoza, community development director for Los Alamitos.
As the Mendoza report said, the City Council voted on Monday, Aug. 1 to direct the Planning Commission to take the first steps toward annexing the business area located on the southwest corner of Los Alamitos Boulevard and Katella Avenue.
”The approximate 14.4 acre site consists of 17 parcels including commercial, multifamily apartments and a church,” Mendoza wrote. “The commercial properties include restaurants, in line retail, a gas station, tire repair services, bar and a car wash. The residential property consists of 150 units of rental apartments. The site also includes buildings and parking areas for Bethelehem Lutheran Church.”
The matter will now go back to the Los Alamitos City Council.
Some Rossmoor residents and officials said they opposed the decision.
Judy Klabouch, a Rossmoor resident and president of the Los Alamitos Chamber of Commerce said that the corner needs to be a part of Rossmoor. She said the corner generates almost $300,000 in sales tax revenues, money that would go a long way to keeping Rossmoor independent.
Henry Taboada, general manager of the Rossmoor Community Services District, wasn’t surprised by last week’s vote. “(It was) not unexpected. I think that was their plan from day one,” he said.
Taboada said no one had canvassed the residents and business owners within that particular area to see what they want.
Eric Christensen, who led the unsuccessful effort to make Rossmoor an incorporated city a few years ago, said Rossmoor residents were going to do everything they could to stop the annexation. He said that might include protests, petitions, talking to the board of supervisors and Los Alamitos business owners—or legal action.
He was also critical of Los Alamitos city officials. “There’s no outreach from Los Alamitos City Council to Rossmoor residents or their own residents,” Christensen said.
“We have no issues with the residents of Los Alamitos,” he said. Rossmoor has no issues with anyone except the majority on the City Council.
However, Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach wrote in a recent e-mail Update to his constituents that the southwest corner isn’t Rossmoor’s corner but the county’s corner. Moorlach, who chairs the OC LAFCO agency, has previously supported the annexation of the corner into Los Alamitos.
