Many people do not know, or realize, that if you live outside the city limits you are a resident of the unincorporated area. This means you do not have a city hall, you do not have a city council and you certainly do not have a mayor.

When you want to address your  local government you have to go to downtown San Diego — to the County Board of Supervisors. Many large communities are in this category: Alpine, Fallbrook, Lakeside, Ramona and Valley Center, to name a few of the 107 unincorporated communities.

We, in the unincorporated area, trust that the Board of Supervisors is looking out for us as if we were a city. At the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) the county is our voting seat. Currently, our county’s primary voting seat is filled with a resident of the City of Imperial Beach.

As a solution to this clear lack of representation, a collaborative effort between all of the Unincorporated Area’s Community Planning Groups created the Association of Planning Groups – San Diego County (APG).  The APG represents over half a million residents at SANDAG. That makes us the second largest “community” in the County — second only to the City of San Diego — who, because of their population, has not only one seat on SANDAG, but two seats.

Why should you care about SANDAG? Because the federal, State and local (think TransNets) taxes you pay — tax dollars that will be directed to transportation — are allocated through SANDAG. SANDAG is responsible for regional planning and the funding of our area’s transportation needs — all transportation i.e., highways, railways, bikeways, walkways, trolley lines, and buses.

If you live in the unincorporated area, the county has been your voting representation on the SANDAG Board. How has that arrangement been working out for you? Is your commute safer, quicker and less expensive on your household budget? With county-only representation, has your tax dollar for transportation been spent wisely, proportionately to the population?

Since the APG secured a seat on SANDAG’s Board — advisory only — the elevation and attention of your needs has risen substantially. But for effective representation of your tax dollars at SANDAG we need to convert this advisory seat into a voting seat. Your APG representative on the SANDAG Board was duly elected to their unincorporated Community Planning Group the same as city councilmembers and county supervisors were elected via the County Registrar of Voters ballot.

With our increased profile at SANDAG, the unincorporated area is being viewed as an area of special interest, requiring more direct contact, communication and focus from this agency than in the past. As a unique area of the county — and being unincorporated as a default status rather than a decision (vote) of the residents — it is important to view this part of the county as a “de facto entity” in and of itself.

SANDAG is certainly recognizing this and the county and Caltrans have moved in this direction, too. The unincorporated area requires a vote on SANDAG separate from the umbrella of current county representation. 

To be clear, the APG does not make policy or review projects — that business is reserved for your respective unincorporated communities. What the APG does is represent the needs of our unique area at SANDAG in the same way that the 18 cities with voting status do at SANDAG. 

SANDAG is the place to advocate for plans and funds that benefit each of the areas represented around the board room. 

In mid-December the Board of Supervisors directed staff to take 90 days and review a possible way to meet this representation need of the unincorporated area. The cities are present and voting and the APG Representative is present, but unable to vote. You, the unincorporated area resident, require an independent voting seat on the SANDAG Board of Directors.

Robin Joy Maxson is chair of the Association of Planning Groups – San Diego County and represents the unincorporated area on the SANDAG Board of Directors.