Supervisors OK Zoning Rules for Airport Area

After years of angry and sometimes tearful public hearings, the Orange County Board of Supervisors gave final approval Wednesday to a zoning plan intended to keep Santa Ana Heights at least partly residential and to allow homeowners to keep their horses.

It was the final step in a series of actions by the supervisors that were calculated to prepare the area for private development, while preserving some of its rural, residential character.

The plans provide specific zoning for individual areas within Santa Ana Heights in what once was a patchwork of varying kinds of development--including some residential and some commercial pockets.

Under discussion for two years, the zoning plan includes measures to prevent through traffic from using the neighborhood for shortcuts. It also sets the stage for development of a business park along Birch Street, said Robert G. Fisher, planning director for the county Environmental Management Agency.

The supervisors previously had approved plans to demolish about 200 homes on Birch Street south of the airport, in the area most affected by jet noise, to make way for the business park.

Hearing Less Rancorous

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes that area next to John Wayne Airport, said the zoning regulations would take Santa Ana Heights “from its years of neglect hopefully to a bright future.”

Wednesday’s vote followed a public hearing that was about two hours long, but less rancorous than previous hearings on the zoning plan. Two dozen homeowners questioned or objected to various aspects of the plan, but without the shouting, anger and occasional tears that have marked previous public hearings over the years.

Preservation of stables and with them a semi-rural life style in the midst of urbanization has been a goal of many residents in the area at the tip of Upper Newport Bay. Many others have given up over the years and moved, largely because of the noise from jets using John Wayne Airport.

A year ago, the county settled lawsuits with Newport Beach and environmental groups and adopted a compromise plan to expand the airport, including construction of a new terminal.

At the same time, county planners began drawing proposals to transform the area around the airport, including zoning for business and buying and demolishing homes where the noise levels exceeded state limits. The county also has offered to buy the homes of residents who can’t find buyers and to soundproof the homes of those who want to stay.

Jean Swedes, a resident, told the supervisors that “over the last few years there has been so much uncertainty in this area that a lot of us have been hesitant to improve our property.” She said approval of the specific zoning rules would allow homeowners to “prove it can be a residential area.”

Bruce DiMauro, who bought a $310,000 house on Cypress Street about six months ago, also asked the board to “keep that area as residential as possible.”

DiMauro joined other residents in questioning why the supervisors were agreeing to the requests of businesses to ease the existing height limits on commercial buildings, but Fisher said the overall plan was a compromise.

“We feel it goes a long way toward satisfying the planning needs of this community,” he said.