Annexed residents remain undaunted

Mathis Winkler

WEST SANTA ANA HEIGHTS -- Neighborhood leaders might be upset that

Costa Mesa’s City Council members voted Monday to apply for the

annexation of West Santa Ana Heights. But residents, who have worked on

the issue for years, said Tuesday that the move will just delay their

wish to become part of Newport Beach.

With about 96% of the roughly 1,800 people living in the

unincorporated area opposed to a Costa Mesa address, it seems certain

that the application for annexation is doomed to fail.

“We can . . . go back with a ‘hell no, I won’t go’ message,” said

Robert Hanley, who has lived in the neighborhood for almost 30 years. “If

they require us to do a vote like that, no trouble, we’ll do it.”

Mayor Libby Cowan, who approved the application with Councilwomen

Karen Robinson and Linda Dixon, said Tuesday she approached the issue as

a policy decision.

Since West Santa Ana Heights falls within Costa Mesa’s sphere of

influence, the local agency formation commission, a county agency that

oversees annexations, should make the ultimate decision.

“They are the ruling authority,” Cowan said. “We are not.”

While city officials had previously adopted resolutions to release Bay

Knolls from Costa Mesa’s sphere of influence to join Newport Beach, no

such steps had been taken regarding West Santa Ana Heights, Robinson

said.

Councilman Gary Monahan, who voted against the move with Councilman

Chris Steel, said he didn’t buy that argument.

“That’s not true. Sorry,” he said Tuesday. “The people in Santa Ana

Heights have been petitioning the city for years to release them from our

sphere of influence.”

Monahan added that since residents were almost certain to reject the

application, Monday’s decision would waste a lot of time and money.

“If 50% [of residents] file a protest, there isn’t even an election,”

he said. “The annexation [application] is just gone, canceled, adios.”

Like their Santa Ana Heights neighbors on the other side of Newport

Beach Golf Course, folks in the western part of the community prefer to

join Newport Beach.

That city’s lead role in the fight against an expansion of John Wayne

Airport, which looms just across the San Joaquin Hills Tollway to the

north of the neighborhood, has been cited as a main reason for annexation

to Newport Beach by Heights residents.

Newport Beach city officials didn’t include West Santa Ana Heights in

their application since the area falls under Costa Mesa’s sphere of

influence. But they’ve said in the past that they’d take the neighborhood

should the commission decide the Heights has to be considered as a

community that should be annexed as a whole.

“I honestly believe that Newport Beach wants us,” said Hanley, adding

that he knew city officials had their own, pragmatic reason.

“They want us for one reason,” he said. “We are the bulwark against

the airport.”