Land Swap Shrinks Seal Beach, Expands Long Beach and Los Alamitos

It’s official. Long Beach and Los Alamitos got bigger. But Seal Beach is smaller today.

In a move decades in the making, Orange County officials on Wednesday approved the transfer of several acres from Seal Beach to Long Beach and about an acre from Long Beach to Los Alamitos.

The boundary shift uses the San Gabriel River and Coyote Creek flood channel as natural borders between Los Angeles and Orange counties. As a result, five Los Alamitos residents whose backyards were once technically in Long Beach will no longer have to pay property taxes to two counties. Similarly, the Seal Beach city limits will no longer cross the San Gabriel River, making services such as policing much less confusing to local agencies, said Benjamin Legbandt, policy analyst for the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO).

“This will make it easier for people to get better services,” said Legbandt. For example, “there were issues before where people would take jet skis up the river and there were questions about which police force handles it,” he added.

will no longer be located in Long Beach with a parking lot in Seal Beach. From now on, it will be entirely in Long Beach, said Legbandt. In total, Seal Beach will cede about 71 acres to Long Beach, and Long Beach will give 1.28 acres to Los Alamitos.

The adjustments are unlikely to affect many people. Mainly, the parcels were unoccupied plots along a flood control channel and a rock jetty. They include the San Gabriel River and Coyote Creek bike trails and generally align the boundary between the two counties by landmarks such as the 605 Freeway and San Gabriel River. Five homes on Los Alamitos’ Toland Avenue will no longer have backyards in Long Beach.

The changes have been a long time coming. When the region seceded from Los Angeles County in the 1800s, the rivers were to serve as natural boundaries. However they meandered from the official border over time, said Legbandt. Additionally, Coyote Creek was made into a fortified flood channel in the 1950s following deadly floods that washed through the county in the 1930s, further shifting the border, added Legbandt.

“The borders will, once again, correspond to the natural, historic boundary,” Legbandt added.

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach prompted the changes.