Airport Noise Fight Settles Into Holding Pattern

Edwin C. Hall started fighting the county over airport noise in 1977. That was four suits, numerous newspaper articles, hundreds of phone calls and, by his estimate, 3 million words ago.

“I’ve written to everyone including the President,” said Hall, 64, who moved into what was the quiet neighborhood of Santa Ana Heights 25 years ago. His dreams of a peaceful retirement home have long since been shattered by the roar of airplanes flying in and out of the county-operated John Wayne Airport, just to the northeast.

“When it comes to government, they really have a license to steal,” Hall complained this week.

But not far from the Hall residence live Kelly and Wesley Beavers, who bought their home in Santa Ana Heights from the county earlier this year. They say they’re the ones--not county government--who got the steal.

“The houses we looked at in other areas were so small and much more expensive,” said Kelly Beavers. As for the airplanes, she said, “I have parrots, and they’re noisier.”

As neighbors in the Sherwood Estates section of Santa Ana Heights, the two couples represent opposites sides of a controversy that has dogged the county for more than a decade and shows no sign of going away any time soon.

Three years ago the county adopted a three-part program that was supposed to mend fences with airport neighbors fed up with the noise. But residents complain--and some county officials concede--that much of the program has been slow getting off the ground.

As one of the first steps under the noise relief program adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1986, the county rezoned some of the noisiest areas around the airport from residential to industrial to forestall future homeowner problems.

The other two parts of the plan applied to about 460 existing homes or apartments in Santa Ana Heights.

Homeowners were given until March, 1987, to opt for a buyout under which the county would purchase the homes of residents who couldn’t take the noise. Then the county was to insulate the houses against noise and resell them. It is one of these homes where the Beavers now live.

“It’s not that bad when the windows are closed,” said Kelly Beavers. “It’s not even a roar. It’s just like a muffle.”

Initially, 72 homeowners opted for the buyout. But county officials say the number of participants has since dwindled to 44. Of those, county officials have completed purchase of 20 and resold half a dozen. The others are under renovation and should be sold by the end of next summer, county officials said.

Hall, who did not sign up for the program, contends that homeowners dropped out because of long delays and below-market purchase prices offered them by the county. He complains that four county-owned houses near his home remain vacant and are a fire hazard.

But county officials say many of the homeowners decided not to sell because of another more popular option offered by the county. Homeowners have until the end of 1990 to sign up for $25,000 worth of sound insulation--including stronger, thicker doors and windows and air conditioning--in exchange for giving up their right to sue over the noise as long as it remains under a certain decibel level.

Already 102 homeowners and the proprietors of 198 apartments in two complexes have agreed to the deal, according to county records. Work on about 40 of the homes is expected to begin early next year. Completing work on all the homes and apartments is likely to take another three or four years, said Micki Harris, a county environmental planner who is overseeing the program.

“It’s been a little slow, but once we get going we should really start cranking them out,” Harris said. “We’ve gotten a good turnout. We’re pretty pleased.”

Thomas F. Hogan is among the 100 or so residents who haven’t chosen either program. At 78, Hogan said, he has no plans to move and would miss the summer breezes from the ocean channel behind his home if he were forced to close his windows and turn on air conditioning.

He would never, in any case, give up the rights to the airspace over his home, Hogan says, and so he’ll just wait it out and see what happens.

That’s the attitude of many folks in the neighborhood these days, Hall said. He is not planning on doing much of anything either.

“We’ve all adopted the happy-go-lucky” attitude, Hall said. “Otherwise we’d be chewing all our fingernails off.”