The original City of Citrus Heights seal shows the incorporation date of Jan. 1, 1997. Photo courtesy of the City of Citrus Heights

CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - Revisit the 12-year effort to incorporate Citrus Heights as Sacramento County’s fifth city.

The Citrus Heights Historical Society welcomes the public to “Stories from Citrus Heights Cityhood,” a special panel discussion on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 6 p.m. in the large conference room at Citrus Heights City Hall, 6360 Fountain Square Drive.

The free, quarterly evening presentation is the fourth and final of an annual series hosted by the CHHS each year, according to its president, Larry Fritz.

Scheduled panelists include John O'Farrell, Executive Officer, Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo); long-time Citrus Heights councilwoman Jeannie Bruins; Bob Churchill, former general manager of the Citrus Heights Water District; Doug Ose, president of the non-profit Citrus Heights Incorporation Project (CHIP) during a pivotal phase of the city’s bid for cityhood; and former Citrus Heights city councilmember Roberta MacGlashan who guided the incorporation effort through LAFCo and helped secure the November 1997 cityhood vote.

Bill Van Duker, owner of All Star Printing and a former Citrus Heights city council member collaborated with Miranda Culp in 2022 to write “Becoming the City of Citrus Heights – The History of a Unique Incorporation” and attorney Nancy Miller are also featured in the presentation.

The journey to the incorporation of the city of Citrus Heights began in the early 1990s. In 1994, after reaching an agreement with Sacramento County, residents gained momentum toward cityhood and began raising funds to cover the cost of the required Environmental Impact Report (EIR), Fritz said.

 An original Citrus Heights Incorporation Project (CHIP) membership drive flyer shows an individual suggested donation of $5 and a family donation of $10 to the initiative. Photo courtesy of the Citrus Heights Historical Society

Citrus Heights, California, became an incorporated city on January 1, 1997, after voters approved a cityhood measure on November 5, 1996.

Transitioning from an unincorporated area to cityhood allowed the community to establish a council-manager form of government and local control over planning, public services, and zoning.

The Citrus Heights Police Department (CHPD) was later established in 2006 to handle local law enforcement independently.

“It’s the first time we’ve the CHHS has been able to gather so many of the important figures in the history of the city’s incorporation together at one time,” Fritz said.

Over the years, CHIP navigated legal, political, and environmental challenges, including boundary disputes, lawsuits, and a 1996 LAFCo recommendation to restart the process under new environmental rules.

Ose, a former U.S. Representative for California’s third district from 1999-2005, was a pivotal leader of CHIP, helped to navigate legal and political hurdles that ultimately resulted in Citrus Heights becoming a city.

Ose’s leadership of CHIP was followed by Roberta MacGlashan, who then guided the process through LAFCo and helped secure the November 1997 cityhood vote, which passed with 62.8 percent approval.

Given the fierce legal resistance Sacramento County put up against the effort to incorporate, Citrus Heights’ eventual success in 1997 is widely credited with paving the way for two other cityhood efforts in Sacramento County. Elk Grove became a city in the year 2000 and Rancho Cordova incorporated in 2003.

Publication of a commemorative book, “Becoming the City of Citrus Heights: the history of a unique incorporation,” co-written by Sacramento author Miranda Culp, in collaboration with Bill Van Duker, who was also a key player in the city’s incorporation efforts, coincided with the city’s 25th anniversary.

The book chronicles the struggle to attain cityhood ascended all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the book, Culp and Van Duker describes the general business climate prior to incorporation as well as community sentiment about being left out of policy decisions at the (Sacramento) county level that affected their quality of life.

During the evening event, members of the Citrus Heights Historical Society (CHHS) will also elect board of directors for the upcoming 2027-28 term. Interested volunteers from those attending the public panel discussion are welcome to step forward to join the society and serve on its board of directors.

The non-profit Citrus Heights Historical Society (CHHS) invites the public to learn more about the local history of their city and become an active member. For more information, visit: https://citrusheightshistory.org/product/membership/.