Annexation plans concern homeowners

Concerned homeowners of about 280 condos in Newport Terrace may flock to a Wednesday annexation hearing after Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau warned them their addresses could be changed from Newport Beach to Costa Mesa.

Newport Terrace won’t be on the table when the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission meets Wednesday to talk about annexations, and officials said it would be all but impossible for the area to be removed from Newport if residents object.

But the neighborhood is connected to Newport Beach by a one-foot-wide strip of land that is part of the annexation discussion, and residents’ fears illustrate the complexity of the issues involved.

The commission will consider Newport’s request to annex West Santa Ana Heights and Costa Mesa’s petition to put an unspecified amount of Banning Ranch under its aegis, a prelude to possible annexation.

Commission staff members last week recommended the West Santa Ana Heights annexation, with a condition: that Newport detach roughly 2,400 feet of a 9,800-foot long, one-foot wide strip of city property that runs along the upper east side of unincorporated Banning Ranch.

Detaching the strip would allow Costa Mesa to talk about annexing part of Banning Ranch’s largely undeveloped 412 acres.

At a glance, the situation of Newport Terrace and Banning Ranch is a complicated mess.

The one-foot strip ? which runs around the western, northern and part of the eastern edges of the Banning Ranch property ? would never be approved today. In fact, Newport Beach Mayor Don Webb said it was annexed to the city in 1950 as a way to ensure that outlying properties such as Newport Terrace ? which was then a city landfill ? would stay connected to the city.

Three years later, the Newport Terrace property was annexed, and Costa Mesa became a city. Strip annexations were outlawed by state legislators around 1956.

The strip connects Newport Terrace to the city of Newport Beach in two places. Under the commission staff recommendation, one of those connections would disappear.

That has residents like Richard McFadden worried that they could be forced to become part of Costa Mesa, the city that nearly surrounds them now. A June 6 letter to residents from City Manager Homer Bludau suggested the commission might go in that direction.

McFadden works in real estate and estimates Newport Terrace property values would drop by $100,000 to $150,000 if the area changed to a Costa Mesa zip code.

He also said he fears the city might want to dump his neighborhood because the methane recovery system under the former landfill needs to be replaced.

“The problem is that the system has deteriorated to the point that it has to be done,” McFadden said. “I know it’s been a thorn in the city’s side for some time.”

But officials said there’s no reason for Newport Terrace residents to fear. For one thing, they always have the right to a protest vote that would block an annexation they don’t like.

Newport also would have to agree to de-annex the area, and that probably won’t happen either.

“It’s not even a subject of discussion as far as I’m concerned. Those folks are part of Newport Beach,” said Newport Beach City Councilman Steve Rosansky, whose district includes Newport Terrace.

Somewhat less clear are the other annexation issues, such as the future of Banning Ranch and two other unincorporated areas not included in these talks ? a neighborhood south of Mesa Drive and the Santa Ana Country Club.

Costa Mesa officials have pressed for comprehensive annexation talks, and county officials have said they ultimately want all unincorporated islands to become part of cities.

But all that will hardly be resolved at Wednesday’s meeting, considering the discussions have been going on for at least three decades.

A newspaper article on a 1973 commission meeting notes that Newport and Costa Mesa officials were asked to meet to talk about Banning Ranch “in the hopes of reaching a compromise acceptable to both sides.”