The Messy Story of Water and Cityhood in CV

“Whiskey is for drinking; Water is for fighting over.” This humorous quote, of unknown origin but usually mis-attributed to Mark Twain, has been a maxim for development in the western states. It’s certainly true here in the Crescenta Valley. We’re geographically one valley, but the land is split among four different civic entities, mostly because of water. Most everything west of Lowell Avenue is City of Los Angeles, colloquially known to us as Sunland/Tujunga. Heading east, we’re in Glendale until we get to Pennsylvania Avenue, where the seemingly identical neighborhoods become unincorporated Los Angeles County, overseen by the LA County Board of Supervisors. Continuing east much of the land beyond Ocean View Boulevard, again without any visible justification, becomes the City of La Cañada Flintridge. It’s a garbled mess. I hope I can clarify.

Recently local historian Fred Hoeptner took on the herculean task of compiling a timeline of the very confusing water/cityhood issues in CV, and I’m writing from his work.

Benjamin Briggs, the first developer of the valley, envisioned La Crescenta as a city centered on the intersection of La Crescenta Avenue and Foothill Boulevard, but no one made the effort to actually incorporate as a city, or to annex to a neighboring city. Water was adequately supplied by entrepreneurs, who literally mined the mountains for water to sell. Services were supplied by the County. Everything worked! Happy valley!

The first attempt to make the valley a city (incorporate) came in 1925, spurred in part by the ambitions of Verdugo City to incorporate, and to hold at bay annexation efforts by Glendale. This attempt came to nothing. Interestingly, during the process it had been decided that the proposed new city would be called “Montrose” rather than La Crescenta.

Meanwhile, Sunland/Tujunga (to Lowell Avenue) was grabbed (annexed) by Los Angeles in 1932 in a still contested, probably corrupt vote. Maybe just a power play, maybe a water grab, probably both.

In post WWII, the Crescenta Valley’s population exploded. That, combined with a drought, meant that the private water dealers could no longer keep up with demand. By 1949, some neighborhoods began to actually run dry. Glendale, which had gobbled land all the way up to Broadview Drive, one block below Honolulu Avenue, began to make offers of “help for our problems,” Glendale hooked the valley into their water system and began supplying water to thirsty CV.  Many residents took the annexation bait and a vote was held in December of 1949 to annex the entire valley to Glendale. It failed by a 2 to 1 margin, but that didn’t solve the water shortage, and we were now tied to Glendale by a water line.

You see, the problem was that State of California water laws were written to favor cities. Glendale as a city could get Colorado River water, but unincorporated areas such as CV, could not. Frank Lanterman from the founding family of La Cañada, got himself elected to the State Assembly to remedy that. But it took a while to do that, and in the meantime some neighborhoods in CV, tired of no water, began to clamor for annexation to Glendale. It was now a race between the forces that could supply water to unincorporated CV and the forces of annexation to Glendale. Believe me it got hot and contentious!

—An interesting side note: The so-called “Sagebrush District” tried to avoid annexation to Glendale by joining La Cañada’s postal district. But they forgot to change school districts, thus the current Glendale Unified School District kerfuffle.—

It was a split decision in 1952, with much of Montrose and CV west of Pennsylvania opting for the water and services of Glendale, and the east of Pennsylvania crowd deciding to wait for Lanterman’s water. That finally came in 1955 with the formation of Crescenta Valley Water District.

On the east side, La Cañada had successfully waited out the water fix by their boy Lanterman, so they were good. But Glendale tried to annex them, too, so they incorporated in 1976.

Unincorporated La Crescenta tried and failed to incorporate in 1964.  And that’s where we are today. Do you think this saga is over? I don’t! I’m sure there’s more to come.

  mike lawler