Brea : Council Rejects Bank’s Helicopter Proposal

Citing a concern for the quality of life in Brea, City Council members unanimously rejected a controversial proposal to use a helipad atop the Security Pacific National Bank Operations Center.

After more than three hours of testimony, mostly from residents who opposed the proposal, council members Tuesday night denied Security Pacific’s request for up to five helicopter flights a day. Originally, the bank had requested 10 daily flights to transport about 3 million documents to and from the center at 275 Valencia Ave. and its 400 branches in Southern California.

“Your home is a pretty important place to you, and we need to realize that those people were concerned about property values, about safety and about noise--and all those affect the quality of life,” Mayor Clarice Blamer said Wednesday.

Both Blamer and Councilman Sam Cooper said Wednesday that proposals unveiled recently by Shell and Unocal oil companies to develop part of their land, which is directly under or near what would have been the helicopter flight path, influenced the council’s decision.

Susan Taha, a senior vice president of Security Pacific, said “it was a little hasty” of the council to deny the request based on a proposed development that may not be completed for years.

“It seemed unreasonable that that would be a legitimate reason to deny us a trial period,” Taha said, pointing out that the bank made several concessions, including reducing the number of proposed flights, suggesting flight path enforcement plans and eliminating a secondary flight path over a residential area.

About 200 residents poured into City Hall Tuesday to fight the proposal they have opposed for several years.

“The only thing I was surprised about was that the decision was made last night, which I was pleased to see because I hate to prolong these things,” Cooper said Wednesday. “I was happy the council went ahead to not delay it.”

The residents’ negative reaction is the opposite of what Security Pacific encountered in the late 1970s, according to Taha. When bank officials were looking for a site for a center that would employ about 1,500 people, Brea officials assured Security Pacific that “we would have no problems with any permits,” Taha said. “We found nothing but very welcoming attitudes.”

But residents said they did not want the noise and pointed to a draft environmental impact report that says 35% of the affected area could experience sleep disruption and 10% could be awakened during flights. Bank officials have questioned the report’s findings.