Orange County OKs plan for Airport Area

More than 15 years after the first jets began flying out of John Wayne Airport, the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted a $34-million plan to replace 206 homes south of the runways with office buildings, retaining a small residential equestrian community for families reluctant to give in to the noise of overflying jets.

“I personally feel like a freed woman--free from the battlefield of Santa Ana Heights,” resident Joan Hulse said of the compromise plan that appears to have united a community that has been bitterly divided for years over the issue of whether to fight for its preservation or give in to expansion of the airport.

The plan, which will allow 386 homes to remain within the area most impacted by jet noise while converting 206 others to office building sites, won unanimous endorsement from board members Tuesday and grudging approval from the two major community groups in Santa Ana Heights, one of which favored protecting homes while the other advocated a redevelopment plan that would allow homeowners to sell to commercial developers.

Both groups have been caught in cross fire during recent years that forestalled completion of a long-term plan for Santa Ana Heights and left many homeowners unable to sell their homes--one woman said her home has been on the market for five years without an offer--and reluctant to spend money improving them without guarantees that they could remain.

County officials say no homeowners in the redevelopment area will be forced out unless their homes become critical to completion of an office project. All families within the jet noise impact zone--an area of 574 homes nearest the runways and subject to average noise levels of 65 decibels--will be eligible for a purchase-assurance program in which the county will buy their homes if they cannot be sold privately.

Those who move from within the impact zone will be eligible for relocation benefits of up to $17,000 for homeowners and $5,000 for tenants in addition to compensation for their homes.

Homeowners within the jet noise area whose properties are not marked for redevelopment will be eligible for free sound insulation--costing the county from $15,000 per home up to as much as $30,000 for some of the older ones--as long as they sign an agreement not to sue the county over airport noise.

Details of all the assistance programs will be worked out over the next three months, but county officials say all relocated homeowners will be paid fair market value for their homes. However, it appears clear that the county does not plan to consider any damage already done to homes in Santa Ana Heights by existing airport noise when determining how much homeowners will be paid for their property.

For the past several years, during which 41 daily jet flights have operated out of John Wayne Airport, homes in Santa Ana Heights have not necessarily sold for as much as comparable property in other areas of the county. But because most property owners have been unsuccessful at collecting damages in court for the jet noise, county appraisers will not be looking at what those homes would sell for elsewhere in the county in setting a value.

“The county’s position is, there’s no loss in value because of the airport,” said Rich Adler, Santa Ana Heights project manager for the county. At the same time, Adler added, the appraisers will not be permitted to factor in planned expansions of the airport to 55 flights next month and eventually to 73 flights--a factor which could conceivably drive property values even lower.

Supervisors agreed on Tuesday to allow several residents to sit on a committee that will work out details of the purchase-assurance program over the next few months. The community will also have a voice in preparing a detailed redevelopment plan over the next year or so that will spell out the future of individual properties.

“I am very enthusiastic about the Santa Ana Heights plan,” said supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes the airport area. “I think that it showed a lot of commitment on the part of the community . . . .”

“This situation has really created a lot of havoc with people, but then to see that in this last effort, with the chips down, when your fate is in your hands, you solve it,” he said of the compromise plan, developed only during the past two weeks.

Ciska Stellhorn, president of the Back Bay Community Assn., led the fight to preserve at least a small equestrian community in the heart of Santa Ana Heights, known for its unique rural flavor in the midst of urban Orange County. Her home on Acacia Street, an acre on which she keeps her seven horses and six Great Danes, is targeted to become part of a business park.

But she said after Tuesday’s meeting, “I plan to live here as long as I can. I have no intentions of moving,” even if office buildings spring up nearby and even if the airport expands to 73 jet flights. Stellhorn says she’s timed the passage of overflying jets at about nine seconds apiece, and at 73 flights, “That’s eight to nine minutes a day. I can live with nine minutes.”

Marianne Towersey, a resident of Santa Ana Heights for 30 years whose home is also targeted for conversion, said, “I guess all we can do is sit and wait to see if they give us enough money so that we can purchase another home in the area.”

Even if the county does not condemn her home, “the traffic is going to necessitate our leaving,” Towersey said. “I don’t want to live under 73 flights. I’d leave tomorrow if they would pay me some money. Because once the decision is made, remaining in an area that is determined to be unlivable is, you know, what can I say? It kind of ruins it. But I think there are a lot of people who are tied to the area because of their horses and so on who probably will stay.”

Mona Odegaard said she has already moved out of her home on a part-time basis because of the jet noise, and has been paying for two homes while awaiting the board’s decision on Santa Ana Heights. “I’m just here to thank you for finally coming to a point where we can get on with our lives,” she said. “I don’t want any more of this to go on.”