They’ve Got a Stake in Name of the Lane

What’s in a name?

A lot, according to at least one south county resident who doesn’t want the Board of Supervisors to change the name of Shadow Rock Lane, where she is buying a house, to Porter Lane in honor of retired rancher and former supervisorial candidate Sam Porter.

It’s not that Michele Alloway dislikes the sometimes controversial Porter, a colorful, self-described maverick. She doesn’t even know the man. It’s just that Alloway thinks Porter’s name should be given to a street that doesn’t already have houses on it, so that she’s not inconvenienced.

She said all of the papers for the purchase of her $210,000 home in the William Lyon Co.’s Trabuco Highlands housing development refer to Shadow Rock Lane. Besides, she likes that name.

Alloway is living in an apartment but plans to move into her new home after the purchase is completed in the fall.

Alloway’s complaint and questions from another resident about who the street was being named for led the supervisors this week to postpone a decision on the matter.

The other resident, Michael Vaughn of Mission Viejo, said Thursday that he thinks that if the street is being named for Porter, the occasion should be handled with a little more pomp.

“Mr. Porter is a little controversial,” said Vaughn, “but he’s a colorful piece of living Orange County history. If they’re going to name a street after him it should be done with a little bit more recognition.”

Porter said Thursday that the William Lyon Co. pledged to name a street after him and build a road to his 280-acre ranch in Trabuco Canyon after the company “appropriated without my permission” the name of his Trabuco Highlands Ranch and started using it for the housing development four years ago.

Porter’s property is just north of the housing development.

William Todos, William Lyon Co. manager for the Trabuco Highlands project, could not be reached for comment.

Porter has irked some of his neighbors by allowing poor people to live on his ranch. He allegedly connected their trailers, illegally, to his own water meter. Porter is also a frequent critic of the Board of Supervisors and this year ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez.

Vasquez, whose district includes the Trabuco Highlands development, said Thursday that the Board of Supervisors does not like to change the names of streets that already have houses on them.

“Staff members were surprised that homes had been developed on this street,” Vasquez said. “To my knowledge and to my understanding, the board generally does not like to make changes that disrupt people’s lives.”

Vasquez said he doesn’t know enough about the matter yet to take a stand. He said the issue is being researched.