CERRITOS

Incorporation

In 1955, members of the Artesia Chamber of Commerce began to move towards incorporation of the city. They planned to have Artesia encompass the area south of Alondra Boulevard to the confluence of the San Gabriel River and Coyote Creek and become a more residential area, pushing the dairymen out. They dairymen planned create a vote to incorporate an agricultural community separate from Artesia, which they called Dairy Valley. The city's name symbolized the more than 400 dairies and 100,000 cows found within its limits. The cows outnumbered the 3,439 residents by a factor of 29 to 1. The incorporation election was held in 1956, and the city was voted to be incorporated, with 54.9% of respondents choosing that option, with a difference of only 60 votes. The city of Dairy Valley was incorporated on April 24, 1956. Jack R. Bettencourt was elected to be Dairy Valley's first mayor that evening.

In November 1958, Dairy Valley voted to change from a general law city to a charter city, gaining more local power and control over zoning. Mayor Jim Albers was threatened with recall in 1960 following a controversy over declining the location of a hospital, which he feared would have a negative effect on neighboring dairies. The city hall was dedicated on June 11, 1960. As land values and property taxes in California rose in the early 1960s, agriculture became increasingly unprofitable, and development pressures increased. Most dairymen were retiring or moving to Chino or the Central Valley. Freeways constructed in the area displaced farmers but made the city more attractive to commuting homeowners.

In a special election held on July 16, 1963, residents voted to permit large-scale residential development. In 1965, it was voted that the Artesia, Bloomfield, and Carmenita school districts were to combine to become the ABC Unified School District. As a reflection of its newly planned suburban orientation, the city's name was formally changed to Cerritos on January 10, 1967, naming it after the nearby Rancho Los Cerritos and to associate with Cerritos College in neighboring Norwalk. Other names in contention were "Los Coyotes" and "Freeway City". The city planned to appeal to middle-class homeowners, with an abundance of commercial and recreation centers.

Between 1970 and 1972, Cerritos was the fastest-growing city in California. Its population grew from 4,373 in 1968 to 40,750 in 1973. Artesia citizens rejected a vote to consolidate with Cerritos in 1971. In June 1972, the city dedicated its own library facility, the Cerritos Library, separate from the LA County Library system. The Los Cerritos Center also fully opened that year. A new city hall with increased capacity adjacent to the library was dedicated in 1978; it was the nation's first solar-heated city hall complex. In the 1970s, the city was known for its restrictive signage ordinances, including a well-known incident in which toy company Toys "R" Us was not allowed to reverse the "R" on their store sign. Ground was broken on the Cerritos Auto Square in 1979.

On August 31, 1986, Aeroméxico Flight 498, on approach to Los Angeles International Airport from Mexico City, was struck by a small Piper aircraft. A total of 82 people died, including 15 people on the ground. The city's transportation shuttle system, Cerritos on Wheels (COW), went into service in August 1993. In 1994, the Cerritos Towne Center was completed, with the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts within first opening its doors in January a year earlier. To celebrate the coming of the millennium in 2000, the city conducted a $40 million renovation of its library, which was completed in 2002. In 2006, the city celebrated its golden anniversary with the unveiling of a sculpture garden in the civic center.