Lake Forest Not Part of South County, Some Claim

Is Lake Forest in South Orange County? Some city leaders in San Juan Capistrano don’t think so.

At their Tuesday meeting, the councilmen discussed what they might envision for the mega-development now under construction to the east of San Juan, Rancho Mission Viejo.

Any attempt to annex the project onto the city of San Juan Capistrano would take place at a separate entity, called the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission, which has 11 members, but the southernmost city representative is Lake Forest City Councilman Peter Herzog.

That just wasn’t south enough for one San Juan leader, who expressed that Lake Forest really isn’t South County.

“I consider, from our perspective, that Lake Forest is more central county,” said Councilman Sam Allevato.

The council decided to send Allevato to the Sept. 11 LAFCO meeting to keep an eye on things.

So how do you respond? Is Lake Forest part of South Orange County?