Cityhood Penalty Set for Leisure World

County officials would ask Leisure World to pay $2.8 million over seven years, at $405,045 a year, if area residents vote to become a city, according to a conceptual proposal approved

Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

The money would help compensate for an estimated $256,400 a year the county would lose if the retirement community adjacent Laguna Hills votes to become a city, Deputy Chief Executive

Officer Michael Ruane said.

Leisure World city backers filed an incorporation application in October with the Local Agency Formation Commission, which approves cityhood action and annexations. The county’s revenue

study assumes the cityhood vote would take place in November. No date has been set as yet.

Supervisor Tom Wilson said the so-called “revenue neutrality” issue still must be approved by the commission. State law requires counties to be compensated by new cities for lost revenues.

“I anticipate a lively debate at” the commission, Wilson said.