Caught between cities

Mathis Winkler

SANTA ANA HEIGHTS -- To Robert Hanley, it’s all about the dragon.

But not the beast from fairy tales. Hanley and a group of residents

don’t want to see their neighborhood become part of Costa Mesa and hope

to be annexed by Newport Beach instead.

Squeezed between the two cities -- the Santa Ana Country Club to one

side, the Newport Beach Golf Course to the other -- only the San Joaquin

Hills Tollway separates the area from John Wayne Airport.

That’s the dragon Hanley’s talking about. Together with fellow

annexation activists, Hanley believes Newport Beach will do a better job

at protecting West Santa Ana Heights from its noisy airport neighbor.

“Newport Beach is the one and only entity that has held that dragon at

bay,” Hanley said. “They are responsible for flight caps and for the fact

that there is no flights after 11 [p.m.] and none before 7 [a.m.]

Obviously they have our interests at heart.”

A majority of Hanley’s neighbors appear to have the same opinion.

About 96% of the area’s 1,800 residents have signed a petition to become

part of Newport Beach, he said. About a year ago, residents also filed an

application with the Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees

the annexation of unincorporated areas, said Hanley, who spoke about the

annexation plans at last week’s Newport Beach City Council meeting.

But unlike eastern Santa Ana Heights, which lies just across the golf

course and is set to be annexed by Newport Beach, Hanley’s neighborhood

forms part of Costa Mesa’s sphere of influence, putting that city first

in line to annex it.

Officials in both cities said that they understand the concerns over

splitting an area that has long perceived itself as one community.

Historically speaking, it also has been true that Newport Beach has

played a more aggressive role in opposing the expansion of John Wayne

Airport, said Allan Roeder, Costa Mesa’s city manager.

“That is because Newport Beach is substantially more affected,” Roeder

said, adding that both cities were against any expansion plans.

Residents’ overwhelming opposition to being annexed by Costa Mesa

would likely fend off attempts to incorporate West Santa Ana Heights,

since an election needs to take place if more than 25% of residents

publicly speak out against the move.

In the end, commission members might have to decide whether both parts

of Santa Ana Heights should come to one city.

Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said that his city would not

include the western area in an annexation application.

The commission’s “staff have said that they will take a look at

whether it’s one community,” Bludau said. “If they decide [that,] it’s

all right with us. But we don’t want to pick a fight with Costa Mesa.

They have to be part of that decision.”

It’s still unclear when Newport Beach will file its application, which

likely would include Bay Knolls and Newport Coast as well. Trouble with

state legislation governing Newport Coast could delay the application

until 2002.

Roeder said that at the earliest, Costa Mesa’s council members would

look at the issue in the beginning of March.

Should Newport Beach file an application before that, Roeder would

bring the issue to Costa Mesa’s elected officials right away or ask the

commission to look at Santa Ana Heights as one area, he said.

While Hanley acknowledged that Costa Mesa’s city officials had spent a

lot of time discussing the issue with West Santa Ana Heights’ residents,

he said that some city leaders had failed to ask the most important

question.

“They don’t get down to the basics of saying, ‘Do you want to be part

of Costa Mesa,’ ” Hanley said. “They feel that we should belong to them.

I don’t belong to anybody. Except my wife.”