Hansen: The private islands of Orange County

Islands are speckled like the spots that they are.

While tropical islands are nice, the people who live on them complain of getting island fever.

The poet John Donne famously wrote that “no man is an island,” meaning there is more to life than a singular existence. We are better connected.

And yet, we have “unincorporated islands” in Orange County. As if an island is not enough distinction, we have to add unincorporated to it.

What are they? By name, they are Rossmoor, Emerald Bay, El Modena, Orange Hills, Silverado and several others — about 25 in all. Officially, they don’t align themselves with the cities that surround them. They are like little Switzerlands but with Cayman Island bank accounts.

Most are affluent communities but not always. They generally divide into two types: very wealthy gated communities like Emerald Bay or more rural, tea party-like areas such as Silverado.

If they were a state, most would be red. They are consistent in their behavior: stubbornly independent, sometimes ornery and least likely to show up for the city’s holiday party.

In fact, Emerald Bay, which is in the Laguna Beach sphere of influence, famously eschews the city’s Fourth of July fireworks every year and instead throws a bigger, longer celebration just a mile north of Main Beach.

While no one admits to the competition, it’s clear the well-heeled Emerald Bay officials toast their win with pleasure.

And maybe it’s that kind of excess and duplication of public effort that causes people to ask: Why do we need an overlapping set of public services within the same city boundary?

Staying with Emerald Bay as an example, why do they need their own fire station for an area that’s less than a half mile wide?

Unincorporated islands like to claim that they are what they are to save money. Because they pull in enormous property taxes per capita, they’d rather keep that money for themselves.

Emerald Bay, with some of the most expensive houses in Orange County, consistently brings in a couple of million dollars in property taxes every year. And because the area doesn’t have much overhead — some landscaping, beach club upkeep and limited public service contracts — it can put on that big fireworks extravaganza every year.

Other islands are not so glamorous. Rossmoor, while still considered upscale and desirable, is a more traditional, well-rounded community that has perpetually fought off incorporation efforts by Seal Beach and Los Alamitos.

In fact, Rossmoor has battled incorporation in one way or another since the 1950s. Consistently, however, its residents have fought back. In the most recent vote in 2008, almost 75% of voters rejected a proposition for cityhood despite the potential to gain economies of scale and save money.

Whatever the reasons for staying independent, and they vary, Orange County would rather these islands go away.

An official program descriptively called the Unincorporated Islands Program, falls under the domain of the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission. The islands program was started in 2000 and has already driven the annexation of 40 unincorporated islands. While the county strives to tailor the program to each area’s individual requirements, one can tell from its documentation what it thinks is the proper course of action.

The county says it wants to work with “cities, local agencies and residents to transition unincorporated islands into ‘whole and healthy’ communities with services and infrastructure consistent with surrounding cities.”

One has to assume that unincorporated islands are not currently “whole and healthy.”

Visitors to the site — oclafco.org — can see where the areas are located and also review a fiscal analysis that offers “benefits for both the County and the annexing cities over the long-term.”

Nearly every city in Orange County has its spots. Some are bigger than others. All have private traditions and secret handshakes, and they freely admit to wanting to keep it that way.

Coto de Caza, Orange Park Acres, Big Canyon, Dove Canyon, Ladera Ranch, Shady Canyon … the list goes on.

They are, perhaps not coincidentally, the reality shows of Orange County.

For better or worse.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at [email protected].