Cityhood Plan OKd for Rancho Santa Margarita

After a rocky ride that started nearly five years ago, cityhood planners Wednesday all but secured Rancho Santa Margarita as Orange County’s first new city next year.

“It’s been like delivering one big baby,” Carol Gamble of the cityhood committee said after an independent state agency unanimously set boundaries for the proposed city and approved the plan for Orange County’s 33rd city.

Now it will be up to voters in the proposed city--Rancho Santa Margarita, Dove Canyon, Robinson Ranch, Trabuco Highlands, Walden and Rancho Cielo--to approve the incorporation in an election this November.

Surveys have showed overwhelming support from the area’s 40,000 residents, including one survey in which 85% of Robinson Ranch respondents said they favored the plan. If approved, Rancho Santa Margarita would become a city Jan. 1.

The cityhood effort was one of the most complicated incorporations in the state’s history, said Dana Smith, executive officer at the Local Agency Formation Commission, which approves cityhood applications. It was fraught with complex financial calculations and negotiations over six boundary proposals.

After the commission’s vote, local residents sprang from their seats, crying out in joy. Many were teary-eyed.

“There’s no way to describe it. I’m just ecstatic,” said Gary Thompson, secretary of the cityhood commission. “You can’t help but get a little emotional because it’s been such a long haul. I feel so relieved.”