Bridges across border dispute

It’s a tug-of-war that dates back to the disco era.

Yet again, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach seem poised this year to

trade barbs over which city will control the coveted West Santa Ana

Heights, the Santa Ana Country Club and an area south of Mesa Drive,

between Irvine and Santa Ana Avenues.

The rhetorical tone has heated up in the last week as Costa Mesa

officials promised to play “hard ball” to keep the coveted areas part

of Costa Mesa -- or at least in the city’s “sphere of influence” --

while Newport Beach politicos questioned why Costa Mesa would usurp

the people’s will to be annexed by Newport Beach.

“They’re surrounded by Costa Mesa,” Costa Mesa Councilwoman

Katrina Foley said last week about the coveted parcels. “It would be

like taking a knife and cutting into the city and having a little

island that is Newport Beach in the middle of Costa Mesa.”

On the face of it, we agree. There’s only one problem, and it’s

been sprinkled upon these very Forum pages in recent days. The people

who live within those parcels want to be part of Newport Beach.

What we have here, it seems, is a quagmire, layered with a strange

mix involving map-drawing, county-versus-local control, John Wayne

Airport politics, a country club, and the history of Santa Ana

Heights itself.

When Costa Mesa tried to annex the country club and West Santa Ana

Heights -- which consists of the homes and businesses bordered by

Santa Ana Avenue to the west and the country club to the north -- the

county body governing annexing, the Local Agency Formation

Commission, gave its blessing. What a lovely world it could have

been. Newport Beach could have East Santa Ana Heights -- which it has

already annexed -- and Costa Mesa could have the West. But West Santa

Ana Heights residents and country club officials derailed the effort

with a protest vote, which in 2002 showed that 70% of Heights

residents did not want to be annexed by Costa Mesa.

Why? Consider recent letters to the editor: For some, it has come

down to better representation from Newport Beach on issues such as

airport noise. For others, it would be better simply to take the

Heights off of Costa Mesa’s hands, and let the city allocate its

resources better.

But perhaps, even as the rhetorical din revved up over the last

two weeks, a silver lining emerged. Newport Beach last week created a

“borders committee,” and Costa Mesa created a similar one the week

before. With a mix of City Council members on them, their goal is to

talk about issues such as annexation. We think that’s a good start,

at least in talking about annexing anything.

It’s time to resolve this border dispute and to start asking some

tough questions. The answers will have to involve voices that are

much more independent than cheerleaders for each city, preaching to

their respective choirs. We know the people’s will, and that’s one

important answer, which in the end could rule the day. But what about

the original boundary lines and maps? If they were drawn within Costa

Mesa, doesn’t that give the city’s claims to the parcels some

legitimacy? Does it really make sense to have an island belonging to

Newport Beach in Costa Mesa? To what extent do traditional “spheres

of influence” play a role, here? What’s fair for all parties? How

much of this is about property values?

Perhaps with dialogue, hopefully brought about by the committees,

answers to this quagmire will come, and instead of building more

borders -- or beefing up the ones we already have -- our elected

officials can build bridges across them.