Opinion ID: 1180394
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The history of the present litigation.

Text: This case presents no disputed issues of fact. The Palos Verdes peninsula borders the Pacific Ocean in the southwest corner of Los Angeles County. The peninsula contains three small cities  Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, and Rolling Hills Estates  but most of the area is unincorporated. Petitioners in the present action reside in the unincorporated area. Petitioners Curtis, Derbes, Hackworthy and Ruth own homes in this area; petitioners Federici and Narevsky own no land. All petitioners are registered voters. The petitioners proposed that the unincorporated land of the peninsula be incorporated into a fourth city, tentatively named Rancho Palos Verdes. The proposed city would have an area of 12.688 square miles and a population of 38,885 by the 1970 census. [7] This area is primarily developed with single-family housing; it also includes large amounts of undeveloped land and commercial holdings of Standard Oil Co. of California and Marineland of the Pacific, Inc. In 1970 the area counted 16,763 registered voters; [8] most of these voters own real property within the city boundaries, but over 1,000 do not. [9] The assessed value of land within the city, as of the fiscal year 1970-1971, was $66,836,080. The largest landowner is Great Lakes Properties, Inc., which owns unimproved land valued at $5,802,840, followed by Marineland of the Pacific, Inc. with land valued at $1,337,500. Improvements within the city command an assessed value of $67,827,920, but the record does not indicate the value of specific improvements. [10] Petitioners filed an application for incorporation of Rancho Palos Verdes on February 8, 1970. After hearing, the local agency formation commission approved the application on April 22, 1970. On May 5 petitioners filed a notice of intention to circulate a petition and on June 25 submitted petitions bearing signatures of about 63.6 percent of the landowners within the proposed boundaries, representing about 42.8 percent of the assessed valuation of land. The board of supervisors verified the signatures and scheduled a hearing for September 8. At this hearing, however, opponents of incorporation filed written protests representing over 55 percent of the assessed value of land. Determining that it had no jurisdiction to proceed further, the board declined to establish boundaries for the proposed city or to call an incorporation election. Although petitioners commenced this action in the appellate courts without first addressing the superior court for relief, this is a case in which the issues presented are of great public importance and must be resolved promptly and thus the action permits the exercise of original jurisdiction by the appellate courts. ( County of Sacramento v. Hickman (1967) 66 Cal.2d 841, 845 [59 Cal. Rptr. 609, 428 P.2d 593].) The case presents issues directly affecting the 35,000 residents of the proposed city and nonresident landowners; pending the resolution of those issues several other proposals for incorporation or annexation of territory within the proposed boundaries must wait in uncertainty. The issues, moreover, extend their import beyond the Palos Verdes peninsula and affect the procedures used for the formation of cities and other local agencies throughout the state.