Brea : Bank to Take Helipad Proposal to Council

A proposal for helicopter flights that has for years pitted a bank against neighboring residents will resurface next month.

Officials at the Security Pacific National Bank operations center, 275 Valencia Ave., plan to go before the City Council to appeal a May 28 Planning Commission decision that bars the center from using the helipad atop its three-story building. Residents contend that such service would be too noisy for the surrounding neighborhood.

To prepare for the encounter between bank representatives and the large number of residents city officials are expecting, four rooms--to be equipped with video monitors--have been reserved for the Aug. 6 meeting in Brea City Hall, according to William Kelly, city development services director.

The bank officials are appealing the unanimous Planning Commission decision to deny without prejudice the bank’s request for up to 10 helicopter flights a day. Also appealing the decision is a Brea resident who opposes the “without-prejudice” provision of the ruling, which would allow the bank to reapply to the commission without having to wait the customary one year.

The bank will make its appeal to the City Council because the Planning Commission’s request that the bank find a better system to monitor the flight patterns of the helicopters is “puzzling to us,” bank spokeswoman Susan Taha said.

“There is no monitoring system in the United States for air flights over communities,” she said.

Security Pacific has suggested several measures to allay fears that the helicopter, which would carry bank documents, would veer from intended flight patterns, Taha said. The bank offered to pay for an independent contractor to make spot checks on the helicopters, which, according to an environmental impact report, would not fly directly over any homes.

“We are obviously a company that is ethical, and our role in the community has been nothing but cooperative and respectful of our responsibilities,” Taha said. “We’re not going to play around with our helicopter and fly all over communities. When we say we’re not going to do that, we’re not going to do that.

“We have a job to do in a short period of time. We don’t have any time or inclination to deviate from that job,” Taha said.

The proposed flights would be from 2:30 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 2:30 to 9 p.m. on Fridays.