Costa Mesa slated to annex Santa Ana Country Club

The commission that decides Orange County annexations voted Wednesday not to change the status of four unincorporated areas expected to be annexed to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa.

Two parcels — the Santa Ana Country Club and a neighborhood south of Mesa Drive — are slated for eventual annexation to Costa Mesa. Residents, however, have applied to annex to Newport, and the commission’s action may weaken that application.

The Local Agency Formation Commission’s decision means Costa Mesa retains the first right to provide services and ultimately try to annex the country club and south Mesa Drive. Newport Beach retains those same rights over a small parcel known as the Emerson tract and the largely undeveloped Banning Ranch, though the latter will be studied further because both cities want at least some of its more than 400 acres.

— Alicia Robinson