It was a time when rolling hills dominated the California Southland and one could drive for miles smelling the citrus groves--long before congested freeways or reality TV shows.

The yellow lines are in Los Angeles County while the rest of this Los Alamitos community is in Orange County. (Courtesy of Orange County)

It was 1889, when the County of Orange was born.

OC residents just won their independence from LA after years of fighting, and the two counties finally agreed to a border along Los Coyotes Creek. For a while residents enjoyed a calm and natural boundary.

Over time, however, the river moved and the boundary didn’t. As areas developed through the 1950s and 1960s, little pockets of LA and Orange started to crisscross along what is now the Coyote Creek Channel.

"It’s gotten to the point where the boundary goes right through people’s pools. The house and front yard is in Orange County but the backyard is in LA County," said Rick Velasquez, chief of staff for Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe.

To help solve these kinds of issues, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to move forward with a proposal that would partly adjust the irregular boundary and set a public hearing date for May 10.

If approved, the proposal would give 36 acres to Los Angeles County and 42 acres to Orange County. Both counties must agree to the adjustments, as must the cities and special districts whose boundaries would be impacted. So far only the cities of Long Beach, Seal Beach and Los Alamitos have been included in the proposal as they are the only three that have requested a border change.

“We have a coalition of

the willing,” said Ben Legbandt, policy analyst for the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), a non-partisan government organization that studies geography, boundaries and development.

Legbandt and his colleagues came up with the boundary proposal after they conducted a study in 2008 commissioned by the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Their report found residents dealing with a tangled bureaucracy as a result of the illogical, back-and-forth nature of the LA-OC boundary.

“Right now we have residents paying two property tax bills: one for LA and one for Orange County,” said Velasquez, who is familiar with the study.

The report also raises concerns about jurisdiction over entrances to each county. When trying to access some parts of the city of Long Beach in Los Angeles County, for example, one must cross a bridge over the channel and drive through Orange County.

(Courtesy of Orange County)

“Logistically it’s a nightmare for some of the municipalities,” said Velasquez.

Government leaders and experts hope straightening out the border will also clarify service responsibilities.

If the proposal passes, it will help define which local emergency entity should respond to flooding of the Coyote Creek Channel, said Legbandt. Orange County has already experienced two major floods from the channel when it used to be a natural river in the 1930s; the floods went all the way down to Santa Ana.

When asked about possible negative aspects to the boundary plan, such as changing voting dynamics, Legbandt said it doesn’t apply. The proposal only involves the exchange of uninhabited land--backyards or undeveloped property next to the river.

Neither county will experience a change in population or any kind of significant property tax loss, said Legbandt.

As a result, experts and politicos do not anticipate a fight against the proposal.

“The boundary adjustment is just going to make everything easier for municipalities and their residents,” said Velasquez. “It’ll be easier for all sides.”

When asked whether Supervisor Knabe, the only supervisor whose district would be affected by the proposal, had any received complaints so far, Velasquez said no.

Of course plenty of time still remains until the May 10 public hearing, but either way the proposal signifies a new era that leaves behind the days of the Southern California orange groves.

Reach Madeleine Scinto here.