Annexation meeting set

June Casagrande

EAST SANTA ANA HEIGHTS -- Residents of this unincorporated area plan

to hold a special meeting to decide once and for all whether they want to

be part of Newport Beach.

The meeting, to be held on May 8 by the committee that represents

residents to the county’s Redevelopment Agency, will give residents of

the area an opportunity to hear a city representative answer the three

questions most on residents’ minds:

* Why does Newport Beach want to annex the area if there’s no

financial advantage to the city?

* What benefits can the city offer?

* And what assurances can the city give that it won’t change the

land-use designations that now make the community a uniquely diverse

place.

Further, the residents’ group plans to present a list of conditions of

annexation that it wants the city to agree to. These include city

maintenance of common areas, and providing the same fire, police and

emergency medical services that it provides to the rest of the city. A

provision on trash pickup, though, could be a sticking point.

Residents want the city to pay for their trash pickup, said Roger

Summers, chairman of the committee that represents the residents on

redevelopment and other issues. But it’s not likely the city will agree.

“We’re not offering trash pickup there,” Assistant City Manager Dave

Kiff said.

Kiff explained that the city is providing free trash collection to

Newport Coast residents because the property taxes there make it

affordable for the city to pay for that service. But Santa Ana Heights is

a redevelopment area, which means that any growth in property taxes from

the area don’t go to the city but instead are used to pay back the county

agency.

“It’s not affordable to provide trash pickup there,” Kiff said.

Residents here now pay for their own trash pickup.

Summers said residents are willing to use redevelopment funds to pay

for part of a fire station built in their neighborhood. But they oppose

Newport Beach’s proposal that redevelopment money pay for all of it,

because the new station would provide fire service to areas outside Santa

Ana Heights.

Summers said he called the special meeting by the group, which has

come to operate as a de facto residents association, to form a unified

front on the annexation question.

“We have not met as a community over the issue of annexation since

back in 1999,” Summers said. “Now here we are 2002 about to go to the

LAFCO workshop, and we would like to be as unified as possible about

where we would like to go as a community.

“My goal is to try and get as many of the players involved in that so

that when we come out of it we have a definite plan that the community

can support.”

The Local Agency Formation Commission, known as LAFCO, will hold its

first workshop on annexation on May 16.

FYI

WHAT: Meeting for residents of East Santa Ana Heights to consider

annexation to the city of Newport Beach

WHEN: 6:30 to 9 p.m. May 8

WHERE: The Koll property at 20071 Cypress St.