San Antonio Hills Homeowners Association members' fascination with joining the town of Los Altos Hills just won't go away.
Members of the association, representing approximately 1,100 homes in the county unincorporated pockets between Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, again surfaced the topic of annexation at their annual meeting Feb. 9, a meeting attended by Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian. In addition, a Jan. 27 letter to Los Altos officials sent by association vice president Henry Rome noted intent to pursue annexation to the town.
The letter, addressed to Los Altos Mayor Lou Becker and the city council, requested "cooperation of the Los Altos City Council in facilitating annexation to the Town of Los Altos Hills of the unincorporated subdivision areas on both sides of Highway 280 in the general area of the (Los Altos Golf & Country Club)."
"This area we're in is under considerable pressure from developers taking lots a half-acre or less and putting two-to-three houses on them," said Ted Brown, who heads the association's annexation committee. "That creates problems," he said, leaving the association in a position of taking legal action, as it has done many times.
Simitian led county efforts last year to address just this issue, which included a moratorium on new building and ultimately employing stricter regulations.
Still, the subject of annexation to Los Altos Hills persists and for several reasons.
The town's one-acre minimum lot size, for one, would present little chance of big houses on relatively small lots, association members say. In addition, members said there are interconnecting streets between Los Altos Hills and the San Antonio Hills area and both share the same services, such as the county sheriff's office, the Los Altos Hills County Fire District, cable and garbage.
"We're going to talk with both cities to see what we can work out," Brown said. "We're in the investigative stages right now," he said, which include informal talks with officials from all the impacted jurisdictions - the county, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.
An association survey taken in the spring of 1997 showed the majority of San Antonio Hills residents interested in annexing to Los Altos Hills. The second choice was annexing to Los Altos.
Association members have shown active interest in annexation in some form since virtually the inception of the organization back in 1941. Rome noted "six or seven unsuccessful attempts" during the past 30 years to annex to either Los Altos or Los Altos Hills.
Brown said Simitian's efforts to address overdevelopment are "really appreciated," but "this may be the time to get more hands-on protection for the quality of the neighborhood." He said the prospect of Los Altos and its quarter-acre lots "just exacerbates the problems, which was the main reason we rejected them."
Simitian said the county's general plan encourages annexation "but only when it's the will of the community." While he said he is willing to help, "there are still more questions than answers based on what I saw (at the homeowners' meeting)."
He added that the annexation process is "more than a little complex," involving the state's Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCo, and the county, in addition to the three impacted communities.
Los Altos Hills Mayor Bob Johnson said the town has not yet been formally approached by the association and no one has recently talked to him about it. He recalled one attempt to annex during his 11 years on the council.
"My real objection was - if you take all these lots, the vast majority are nonconforming lots by Los Altos Hills standards," Johnson said.
As far as the possible lure of property tax revenues, Johnson noted the town gets only $4 of every $100 in property taxes.
"I understand there's a lot of advantages for them, but there's nothing (benefiting) the town with annexation," Johnson said.