Newport close to adding islands

June Casagrande

It’s the closest they have ever come to becoming part of Newport

Beach and, on Sept. 16, east Santa Ana Heights residents expect to

get their first and largest green light. It is then that a county

commission will consider whether the area should be annexed to the

city.

But while it’s a safe bet that the county’s Local Agency Formation

Commission will take a positive view of a request to annex three

county islands to Newport Beach, several other requests that will

face commissioners almost guarantee that there will be some

controversy. West Santa Ana Heights and the Santa Ana Country Club

have asked to become part of Newport Beach.

“They have asked to be placed in the Newport Beach sphere of

influence,” commission representative Bob Aldrich said. “That’s

contradictory with Costa Mesa’s application.”

Costa Mesa has applied to annex the western portion of Santa Ana

Heights, as well as the country club. Both have asked Newport Beach

to take them in, but Newport Beach chose to follow the “sphere of

influence” boundaries set by the commission decades ago that put west

Santa Ana Heights into Newport Beach.

In its September hearing, the commission will consider together

applications by Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, the west Santa Ana Heights

residents, the country club and a few others. If Newport Beach’s

request is approved and all the paperwork is completed in time, east

Santa Ana Heights residents will boast a Newport Beach address on

July 1. If they get tied up in red tape, annexation will be postponed

until July 1, 2004.

“We learned our lesson during Newport Coast annexation to start at

the beginning of the fiscal year,” Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff

said, explaining that paperwork with state and county agencies was

made much more cumbersome because the coast was annexed on Jan. 1.

A protest period, likely to begin in mid-October, will give

certain residents a chance to undo any of the commission’s decisions.

For example, if more than half of the residents of west Santa Ana

Heights protest annexation in writing, the matter could be put to a

vote. But their actions wouldn’t stop Newport Beach from annexing the

eastern area in the meantime.

“Right now, we’re just kind of shadow boxing,” said Roger Summers,

head of an east Santa Ana Heights resident group and a supporter of

annexation. “We’ve never gotten this far before. That’s encouraging.”

In April, the council reconsidered annexing east Santa Ana Heights

and Bay Knolls following resident outcry on the annexation’s details.

Property taxes in Santa Ana Heights are bound to a redevelopment

agency agreement that automatically uses all increases in property

taxes there to pay back the agency’s investment in the area until

2035. So tax revenues the city would get from annexing the area are

fixed until 2035 at about $110,000 a year.

East Santa Ana Heights is near the northern end of the Back Bay

and has a population of about 1,000; Bay Knolls has more than 400

residents.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

[email protected].