Costa Mesa’s eyes on Banning Ranch

In response to Newport Beach’s move to annex West Santa Ana Heights, Costa Mesa will make a bid for the bulk of the largely undeveloped Banning Ranch, City Council members decided Tuesday.

The council voted not to revive a pending application to annex West Santa Ana Heights but will continue to oppose any annexation of the Santa Ana Country Club and an unincorporated neighborhood south of Mesa Drive.

Councilman Gary Monahan made motion to focus on Banning Ranch.

“The residents [of West Santa Ana Heights] are correct in my mind that they are being held hostage in our little poker game with Newport Beach,” Monahan said. “That does not mean that I agree with what is happening in Newport Beach,” he said in reference to Newport possibly annexing other areas between the two cities.

West Santa Ana Heights is one of a few chunks of unincorporated county land between Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. East Santa Ana Heights was annexed to Newport in 2003, but the two cities have never been able to reach agreement on the western portion.

Newport’s City Council voted Feb. 14 to apply to the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission for the right to annex West Santa Ana Heights.

Now Costa Mesa is making its own land grab.

“We cannot stand by while they gobble up the northeast part of Costa Mesa,” Eric Bever said.

Costa Mesa officials voted to file a request to bring 369 acres of the 412-acre Banning Ranch property into their sphere of influence. It’s now within Newport’s sphere.

But the move isn’t likely to make an impression on Newport.

“Newport Beach is not interested in considering that,” Newport Beach Mayor Don Webb said Tuesday.

He pointed out that Banning Ranch is completely surrounded by Newport’s boundaries, although in some areas it’s only a one-foot-wide strip.

“I can’t quite understand why Costa Mesa would want to go into areas that would prefer to be in Newport Beach,” Webb said.

Development would probably occur on the southern part of the property, which borders West Coast Highway and is Newport territory, Webb said.

“We feel if the property owner of Banning Ranch is consulted, they’d say, ‘No, we prefer to come to Newport Beach,” Webb said.

West Santa Ana Heights is in Costa Mesa’s sphere of influence, which means when drawing boundaries, county officials thought Costa Mesa could best provide municipal services to the area.

But residents of the area say they want the east and west parts of their neighborhood to be in the same city ? Newport Beach. And Newport already manages a number of projects with the Santa Ana Heights’ redevelopment funds.

The Local Agency Formation Commission decides on annexation requests and may take four to six months to consider requests.dpt.08-annex-CPhotoInfo3I1ONF8Q20060308ivsh0rknKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Under Tuesday’s cloudy skies,the Banning Ranch property lies beyond the trees at Talbert Regional Park.