Let County Lines Determine Area Codes, Residents Urge

A handful of people who attended a public hearing Tuesday night on a proposal to create a new area code in the 714 area favored a plan that would mean no changes for Orange County residents.

The meeting was the second in a series of state-mandated hearings conducted by the phone companies as discussions continue about who will be chosen to use Southern California’s newest area code.

The proposals include leaving Orange County as 714 and turning the rest of the existing area code into 909; splitting Orange County into north and south and making South County part of the new 909 code; or interspersing new 909 numbers with the existing 714s throughout the entire region, meaning that neighbors could have different area codes and could phone each other only by dialing 10-digit numbers.

Phone company officials say Southern California’s booming population and the increase in the numbers of cellular phones and fax machines have drained the supply of numbers in the 714 code.

Ed B. Ingram, an executive with the California Credit Union League in Pomona, warned of confusion if new 909 lines were interspersed with existing 714 lines.

“As we grow and add more fax lines and modems, it is going to be very confusing for our customers and our members,” said Ingram, one of five people who spoke at the meeting. “I’m not in favor of that plan.”

Under the plan that has been receiving popular approval, the area code boundaries would essentially be broken down by county lines. Orange County, with the exception of the three northwest cities now in the 213 area, would keep 714, while virtually all the rest of the present 714 area--from Diamond Bar and several other eastern Los Angeles County cities through western Riverside and San Bernardino--would switch to the 909 code by January, 1993.

Merrijo Hatfield of Fullerton, who attended the meeting with her husband, Carl, asked if there was anyone who favored any plan other than the one keeping most of Orange County with its existing 714 area code.

“It seems that everyone thinks the first plan makes more sense,” she said.

Additional provisions of the county plan would call for Big Bear, Big Bear Lake and Running Springs, now part of the 714 area, to be included in the 909 region. Claremont, Pomona and Diamond Bar, all in Los Angeles County, also would switch to the 909 code.

But cities in northeast Orange County now included in the 213 area--Seal Beach and parts of Los Alamitos and La Habra--would be unaffected by the switch.