Rossmoor, California · 10,625 neighbors · Unincorporated since 1957

A town in
every way
but one.

Rossmoor has its own name, schools, parks, and wall. What we don't have is a say. The county writes our zoning. Our taxes run a surplus for everyone else. Our neighbors' city halls plan our future out loud. There is a way to fix that with zero new taxes.

Read the plan Follow the money

The story

Seventy years of other people deciding for us

1957

A town is built

Ross Cortese builds Rossmoor. About 3,500 ranch homes under a tree canopy, with a name, schools, parks, and a wall. Everything a town needs but a government.

1960s

Our tax base is taken

Seal Beach annexes the 59 acre Rossmoor Business Center, now the Shops at Rossmoor. 2,600 residents sign a protest. It doesn't matter. The boundary is drawn so no resident can vote on it. That is why Rossmoor collects almost no sales tax today.

2008

Cityhood fails, for a reason

Measure U-A puts cityhood on the ballot chained to a 7 to 9 percent utility tax, in the middle of the financial crisis. Voters say no, 72 to 28. They were right. A city that needs a new tax has no business on the ballot.

2011

The county shows its hand

A county study proposes folding Rossmoor into a "super city" and claims we cost the county money. Our district's independent audit finds the opposite. Rossmoor pays the county a net surplus of $317,440 a year. A county supervisor then states his priority: annex our shopping center first, then eliminate the island.

Today

The island is on the map

LAFCO has put Rossmoor inside the Los Alamitos sphere of influence. That is the formal first step toward annexation. LAFCO also runs a standing program to eliminate county islands like ours. Rossmoor's status is going to change. The only question is who sets the terms.

The ledger

Rossmoor pays. Others decide.

In 2011 the county claimed we cost it money. Our district hired independent auditors. Here is what they found.

Net surplus Rossmoor pays the county, every year

The Harvey Rose audit's number. The county had claimed we cost it $124,000 a year.

Federal pandemic relief received, by community

Cypress

$9.0M

Seal Beach

$5.0M

Los Alamitos

$2.3M

Rossmoor

Cities qualify. County islands do not.

Protest signatures ignored in the 1960s

Seal Beach took our 59 acre shopping center and its sales tax anyway. The boundary was drawn so we could not vote. Every year this continues, our franchise fees sit at the county, others spend our road money, and our one commercial corner stays a named annexation target.

The plan

Three gates before any ballot

2008 failed because cityhood came chained to a utility tax. This plan makes that impossible. Three gates, passed in public, in order. Cityhood reaches your ballot only after all three. If a gate fails, we stop, and nothing changes.

Gate 1

Fix the state law

Cities formed before 2004 get a property tax stream in place of the old vehicle license fee. It is worth about $250 per resident a year, roughly $2.6M for Rossmoor. New cities get zero. That gap is what forced the 2008 tax. We join the statewide coalition fighting it, alongside Ladera Ranch, and win parity first. The state has done this before. It restored the funding for four Riverside County cities in 2017.

Passed when a VLF parity bill is signed.

Gate 2

Negotiate from strength

The audit proves Rossmoor subsidizes the county. Letting us go saves the county money and erases an island its own policy says should go. So we negotiate before spending a dollar on studies: a fair property tax share, franchise fees transferred, and any transition payment capped at five years.

Passed when the county signs a fair revenue agreement.

Gate 3

Prove it in public

Now we fund the official fiscal analysis, with the test published in advance: ten years of projections, balanced every year, zero new taxes, a 25 percent reserve. We invite the State Controller to check the math. If the numbers fail, we do not file for an election. You lose nothing.

Passed when the analysis balances with no new taxes.

The model already exists eight miles away. Villa Park, population 5,800, runs on about six staff and a $5.8M budget. It contracts the Sheriff and nearly everything else and keeps millions in reserve. Rossmoor has twice the people and some of the highest assessed value per acre in the county. This model fits us even better than it fits them.

What residents get

Same tax bill. A lot more say.

No new taxes. Period.

Incorporation does not touch Prop 13. The 1 percent cap is in the state constitution. Cityhood only changes who receives the money you already pay. Under this plan, a proposal that needs a new tax never reaches your ballot. And any future tax would still require its own vote of residents.

Property values

A 2025 Urban Institute study of 400,000 property records found communities like ours gained value after incorporating, up to 16 percent in the strongest case. Why? Zoning decided by five neighbors instead of a county board whose members each represent 600,000 people. On a $1.6M median home, even 3 percent is about $48,000.

Money that stays home

Franchise fees the county keeps now. Gas tax and Measure M road money spent on our streets, by our council. A trash contract we bid ourselves. And eligibility for the programs that sent Cypress $9M, Seal Beach $5M, and Los Alamitos $2.3M in federal relief while Rossmoor got zero.

The annexation threat ends

Nobody annexes a city piece by piece. The sphere of influence comes off the map, and no council in a neighboring city ever decides what gets built on our streets.

Straight answers

Ask us the hard ones

Didn't we already vote this down?

No. We voted down a 7 to 9 percent utility tax in 2008, and we were right to. This plan bans that ballot. Cityhood only goes to a vote after a published fiscal analysis balances with zero new taxes. No balance, no vote.

Can a town of 10,600 really run a city?

Villa Park does, eight miles away: 5,800 residents, about six staff, a $5.8M budget, the Sheriff on contract. Hidden Hills runs on five employees. The contract city was invented in Southern California, and Rossmoor is close to its ideal case.

What if the numbers never work?

Then nothing happens. That is what the gates are for. A failed gate leaves you with the status quo, not a broke city. And the homework pays off either way. Documenting our donor status strengthens every negotiation Rossmoor has with the county.

Why not just stay unincorporated?

Because that option is not on the menu long term. LAFCO targets islands like ours for elimination. Our one commercial corner is a named annexation target. History says absorption happens over our objections, not with our consent. Incorporation means we set the terms.

The wall says Rossmoor.
The city should too.

In the 1960s, 2,600 neighbors signed their names to protest an annexation. This starts the same way. Read the plan, bring your toughest critique to the next community meeting, and add your name.

Every name counts. Add yours next.

Read the full plan

A town inevery waybut one.