Helipad Dispute Lands in Supervisors’ Laps : Hearing: Board to decide whether homeowner’s plan is appropriate for a residential area. Neighbors are opposed, but not the Planning Commission.

For more than a year, financier Jerry Dunton has been fighting it out with some of his neighbors over his plans to build a helicopter pad on his 8-acre estate overlooking Mission Viejo.

Tuesday, they will square off for what could be the last time as the two sides of the helipad debate meet in the County Hall of Administration for a long-awaited public hearing. At its conclusion, the Orange County Board of Supervisors is expected to decide whether to allow the landing site to be built in the residential area.

“I earnestly expect the supervisors to accept the appeal and reject the permit to build the heliport,” said Kenneth S. Kasdan, a resident of Coto de Caza and the attorney representing those opposing the heliport. “I think they are going to listen to the community on this one.”

Kasdan is representing the Los Ranchos Community Assn. Inc., which consists of 75 residential lots in Coto de Caza, and many have written to the board to express their opposition.

Kasdan, echoing the concerns of many others, said the proposed pad would burden the community with “obnoxious and offensive” noise, and he cited “safety risks associated with low-flying helicopters” in a residential setting.

Still, not all of Dunton’s neighbors are against the idea.

Jeannie Whitney, who lives across the street from the Duntons, told county planners in a letter that she witnessed a helicopter landing near her home and she did not have any problems with the noise.

“The Duntons are responsible neighbors, and I feel assured that they would operate their helipad in a manner which reflects their consideration for their neighbors,” she said in a letter to the County Planning Commission.

Others, including Dori Nordeck, the wife of County Planning Commission Chairman Stephen A. Nordeck, urged the residents of Coto de Caza to be fair to the Duntons.

“They are staunch supporters of the Coto community,” she said in a letter also signed by eight other people. “To give back what they have contributed, it perhaps would be kind to give a full and careful review of what they are requesting.”

Dunton, president of the Irvine-based Mariners Financial, first applied for the helipad more than a year ago. It was rejected by the homeowners’ architectural committee, the Coto de Caza Specific Plan Board of Review and the Saddleback Area Coordinating Council, but it was approved by the Orange County Planning Commission in February.

In April, county supervisors postponed a vote on the Planning Commission appeal and ordered its staff to study how other cities and jurisdictions regulate private helipads.

Another Coto de Caza resident, developer William Lyon, has used a nearby helipad on his 130-acre estate for years. His application was approved by the County Planning Commission and the Coto de Caza review board in 1989.

Thus, Dunton’s request, though unusual, is not unprecedented.

“He’s always been interested in helicopters,” Joy Dunton said of her husband. “But that is not the real reason he wants the (helipad). It is really for business and to avoid traffic on those trips to Los Angeles and San Diego.”

She said they have 8 acres of property around their home, and would not be flying over any houses on their approach to the landing area.

“It’s really not a big deal,” she said of the helipad.

Following county redistricting earlier this year, Coto de Caza was moved from Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez’s district to Supervisor Thomas F. Riley’s, and the heliport controversy moved with it.

Riley aide Kenneth Bruner said that office has received about 175 letters about the helicopter landing site, most of them against it.

“I have read them all,” Bruner added.

In those letters and in interviews, most opponents cite the noise and safety issues, and stress that they do not believe a helicopter pad belongs in a residential community.

“This is a residential community, not an airport or business complex,” said Los Ranchos Community Assn. President Hal Causey. “The concept of a private heliport violates our environment, privacy, and most important, our safety.”