The City of Orange is not in a financial position right now to be taking on unincorporated county land, not when we're already struggling to fully take care of what we have. Our police, fire, code enforcement, and public works are stretched thin. We do not need to add 850 more acres and nearly 5,000 more residents to that load with little to no commercial property acquisition for sales tax.
Staff's own report says we need an infrastructure audit because we don't even know the condition of the streets and storm drains we'd inherit, meaning years of deferred County maintenance becomes our bill to pay. And by the report's own admission, annexation "would likely result in an ongoing net fiscal impact to the City" under the current revenue split, plus over 1,300 RHNA housing units with no added revenue attached.
And the next step tonight authorizes staff and consultant time to study whether we should spend even more money later, on a problem we haven't even confirmed our residents want solved.
We are not financially positioned for this. Let's fully fund and staff what we already owe our current residents before we go looking for more.
The City of Orange is not in a financial position right now to be taking on unincorporated county land, not when we're already struggling to fully take care of what we have. Our police, fire, code enforcement, and public works are stretched thin. We do not need to add 850 more acres and nearly 5,000 more residents to that load with little to no commercial property acquisition for sales tax.
Staff's own report says we need an infrastructure audit because we don't even know the condition of the streets and storm drains we'd inherit, meaning years of deferred County maintenance becomes our bill to pay. And by the report's own admission, annexation "would likely result in an ongoing net fiscal impact to the City" under the current revenue split, plus over 1,300 RHNA housing units with no added revenue attached.
And the next step tonight authorizes staff and consultant time to study whether we should spend even more money later, on a problem we haven't even confirmed our residents want solved.
We are not financially positioned for this. Let's fully fund and staff what we already owe our current residents before we go looking for more.