Supervisors Call for More Hearings on Santa Ana Heights Plan

A redevelopment plan for Santa Ana Heights that would allow many residents the option of keeping their homes or converting them to office buildings “has merit,” the Board of Supervisors agreed Wednesday, but the board sent the proposal back for more hearings before making a final decision.

The board’s action delays for at least several more weeks a determination of the fate of the rural residential community that lies below the flight path of John Wayne Airport.

However, the 3-0 vote indicates that there is substantial support on the board for at least considering the new compromise plan, proposed this week by Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, which many residents declared would turn the community into a “planned slum” by injecting the noise and traffic that comes with office development into residential neighborhoods.

Many Plans to Choose From

The board could have adopted a number of alternative redevelopment plans Wednesday, most of which call for outright conversion of some neighborhoods to business parks while preserving others, without further hearings. But the board elected instead to ask the Planning Commission to make recommendations on Riley’s plan because supervisors cannot act on any major land-use issue that the commission has not reviewed.

The commission will look at the plan Tuesday, and board members will select from all available alternatives when the supervisors take final action Feb. 26.

Riley’s plan, while it proposes overall conversion of fewer homes than other alternatives--a maximum of 172 in all--has become controversial because it establishes a “mixed-use” area in east Santa Ana Heights in which residents can choose to remain on residential equestrian lots or convert to office buildings.

Riley said he proposed the compromise in deference to property owners who can no longer bear to live near the airport--set to expand to 55 flights a day this spring--and who wish to have the option of selling their homes to commercial developers.

Residents Object

County planners say it will allow the market to determine whether the area will remain as a neighborhood of equestrian estates--inhabited by those who don’t mind the noise of the overflying jets--or whether it will become ripe for office development.

But the majority of those who testified Wednesday said the plan would destroy the community by encouraging office buildings next door to residences.

“I feel as though I’ve been stabbed in the back by my own supervisor and his aides,” said Marianne Towersey, a resident of Birch Street.

A plan endorsed by the county Planning Commission and a number of neighborhood groups--which allows most of east Santa Ana Heights to remain residential while converting the noisiest core neighborhoods to offices--is “a true compromise,” Towersey said.

No ‘Overnight Millionaires’

“What it did not do was make property owners overnight millionaires . . . . Supervisor Riley sympathized with those fortune seekers so those greedy few could get what they wanted at the expense of the good of the whole,” she declared.

Patricia Cox, a resident of Mesa Drive and Towersey’s mother, said: “I’ve been crying for two days. It’s devastating. I’m crushed. He (Riley) is putting in one more bulldozer to completely destroy Santa Ana Heights.”

Added Beverly Mullan: “I don’t see a compromise. I see a planned slum.”

Group Welcomes Plan

Ciska Stellhorn, president of the Back Bay Community Assn., urged supervisors to designate the entire mixed-use zone, comprising 102 homes, a residential equestrian area and wait for several years to see how it develops. If it continues to deteriorate--as county planners have complained--then the county can allow other forms of development, she said.

But members of ABCOM (an acronym for several major streets in Santa Ana Heights) said they welcomed the plan as a chance to leave the area. The plan recommended by the Planning Commission and the citizens’ groups left several of them stranded without the opportunity to redevelop, they said. (The county is offering to buy out only those homeowners whose homes are targeted for conversion or who live in the area most heavily impacted by jet noise.)

“The people on the other side are not the only ones that are feeling emotional about this,” said Mary Davis, who has lived on Mesa Drive for several years. “We feel that this plan the other side was pushing gave us no chance for input.”

Betty Knox, a resident of Acacia Street for the past 35 years, said: “We kind of look forward to some peace and quiet somewhere else.” She added, “We don’t want to be millionaires, we don’t expect to be, we’re hard-working people.”

Will Consider All Plans

Supervisors said they will give all possible land-use scenarios equal weight in coming to a decision later this month.

“I haven’t canceled out any of the plans in my mind,” said Supervisor Ralph Clark. “We want to give this thing every chance to succeed after the decision.”

Supervisors Harriett Wieder and Bruce Nestande had to leave for other engagements and missed the vote.