O.C. 5th District: From Fabulous to Fractured

In the southernmost tip of Orange County, San Clemente Mayor Steve Apodaca fears the recent drive-by shooting that claimed the life of a teenager last Sunday night signals a growing gang problem.

About 10 miles northeast in unincorporated Aliso Viejo, Carmen Vali pays steep homeowners’ fees and special district taxes--and wants to know whether she’s getting her money’s worth.

For John Skinner, who resides in Newport Beach farther up the coast, the quest to save the pristine bluffs of Upper Newport Bay and keep its waters clean have occupied the last 12 years of his life.

Welcome to Orange County’s fractured 5th Supervisorial District, where the hotly debated topic of building a civilian airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is only one among the multitude of concerns in the county’s largest, wealthiest, most populated and easily most conflicted region.

As Gov. Pete Wilson searches for a replacement for 5th District Supervisor Marian Bergeson, who is leaving next month for a top state education post, many are questioning whether it’s even possible to represent such a disparate constituency. The new supervisor better be prepared to make as many enemies as friends, those who live in the district say.

“It’s difficult--it may be impossible--to blend it all into one and say this is the 5th District point of view,” concedes Janet Huston, executive director of the Orange County League of Cities.

Here’s why:

* Stretching from the luxury homes of multimillionaires in the island neighborhoods of Newport Beach, eastward to the rural canyons and enclaves at the foot of the Cleveland National Forest and all the way south to the San Diego County border, the 5th District contains the most diverse terrain and is by far the county’s largest both in population and size. More than 548,000 residents share 319 square miles.

* The district is home to a city just five years old--Laguna Hills--and the oldest community in all of California--San Juan Capistrano. There are eight cities in all, and two burgeoning developments--Aliso Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita--are seriously considering becoming cities.

* The district includes Leisure World Laguna Hills, the largest retirement community of its kind in the United States. And just across the street there’s Aliso Viejo, a destination for fledgling families with kids, where the average age is said to be 32--making it one of the “youngest” suburbs in the county.

* The district includes two of the most politically powerful cities in the county--Newport Beach and Irvine--which are often at each others’ throats, most notably when it comes to the El Toro airport controversy.

* The southern portions of the district complain about being ruled from Newport Beach, while Newport Beach gripes that South County has too much say. And then there are the folks in the unincorporated swatch who are bitter about having only a county supervisor to complain to instead of a city council to call their own.

*

If representation depends on consensus building, how do you bring together people whose interests are often diametrically opposed?

“I don’t think you can keep everyone happy,” said Thomas F. Riley, 84, the retired Marine Corps general who represented the district he nicknamed the “Fabulous Fifth” for 21 years. “It’s a huge area with a lot of open space that people guard with a great deal of fervor. You’ve got industry, you’ve got housing, you’ve got recreational areas. You’ve got a lot of competing interests.”

Agreeing is 3rd District Supervisor Don Saltarelli, whose district shares some of the same rival issues as Bergeson’s. Earlier this year, Saltarelli called for immediately redrawing all five supervisorial districts instead of waiting until the next U.S. Census at the turn of the century, but there was little support from his board colleagues.

Political divisions are all about growing pains, said Mark Baldassare, a UC Irvine professor of urban and regional planning.

“This reflects the shift in the power base that’s occurring as the population grows in South County,” Baldassare said. “The result is an area in which localism really prevails and regionalism is a minority viewpoint. And that makes it very hard for there to be any consensus to what a county supervisor is supposed to be doing.”

The 5th District issue getting the most attention is the proposed civilian airport at El Toro that could serve as many as 38.3 million passengers a year. Countywide voters have twice endorsed an El Toro airport.

But pro- and anti-airport camps have made stands within the 5th District, which was starkly contrasted at two recent community meetings.

In Irvine, more than 600 South County residents--many of whom live in the 5th District under potential flight paths--confronted county officials with their concerns about safety, noise, traffic and pollution.

And last Wednesday, Bergeson was confronted by a sometimes hostile crowd of 300 people at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. They are angry that she has asked Wilson to replace her with a South County resident who shares her opposition to a major airport at El Toro.

*

Newport Beach, like other North County cities, supports an airport as a way to boost a flagging economy and become a magnet for jobs and business. But residents also hope an El Toro airport will end passenger service at John Wayne Airport.

Bergeson reminded the crowd that 85% of voters in her district opposed an El Toro airport. But that did little to appease the Newport Beach crowd.

“What about us?” said Newport Beach resident Stella Walsh. “When do we get our representation?”

“It’s not easy,” sighed Bergeson, the day after the Newport Beach meeting. “No one can do it and enjoy it . . . without a few sleepless nights along the way.”

There is a long history of South County residents in the 5th District feeling embattled from all sides--North County, the Board of Supervisors, and even from within.

Starting in the 1970s and increasingly in the 1980s, developers in Irvine and Newport Beach saw the south as ripe for “progress” while longtime South County residents marched behind the “preservation” flag.

County supervisors did little to ease the friction, some observers say.

For example, in the early 1980s, when a developer of Laguna Niguel sold its interests to 13 different businesses, longtime Laguna Niguel resident George Hollowell and others watched angrily as each subsequent developer went to the supervisors and received permission to build more homes in the community than were originally approved.

*

Alienated South County residents determined they would control their own destinies and campaigned for political independence. As a result, five new cities were created, including Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel and Dana Point.

“The airport is perhaps the straw that breaks the camel’s back, but this [unhappiness with the county] started in the early 1980s,” said Gary L. Hausdorfer, a former mayor of San Juan Capistrano. “It was brought about by an attitude of disregard for local opinions.”

Fears that a distant county government may still impose its will are fresh in the minds of many, like Vali of Aliso Viejo.

Vali, president of the Aliso Viejo Community Assn., is concerned that the county, looking for ways to save money and downsize after the bankruptcy, may force her unincorporated community to join a neighboring city whether residents like it or not.

“I worry that our fate is going to be decided before we get around to it,” she said.

And some in South County say they cannot even rely on one another.

*

Gary Thompson is leading an effort to turn his planned community of Rancho Santa Margarita into its own city. Meanwhile, a rival group is trying to take the tax- and park-rich Rancho Santa Margarita and meld it with other foothill communities into what Thompson derides as a “super city”--exactly the kind of place many in South County want to avoid.

Skinner, a Newport Beach physician and environmentalist, said he hopes the new supervisor isn’t so focused on some of the more controversial concerns, such as an airport, that he or she overlooks environmental issues.

“Marian’s been split in two on the airport, but I don’t think there should be an argument about water quality issues,” said Skinner. “It’s critical to keep on top of that.”

Meanwhile, in San Clemente, gang violence worries Mayor Apodaca. The death of an 18-year-old recently shot in front of his own home underscores the need to end street violence before it gets out of control in a city that includes million-dollar estates and the home that was President Nixon’s Western White House.

“A lot of people in south Orange County would like to stick their head in the sand and say we don’t have a gang problem, but the fact of the matter is San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente, as well as other areas here, have gang populations,” Apodaca said. “That’s the kind of public safety issue that the next supervisor in the 5th District is going to have to face.”

Whomever is selected to replace Bergeson is not going to be able to make everyone happy, nor should that be the goal, Riley and others say. They suggest elevating the debate over the airport and other issues of local government and leaving rhetoric and emotions behind to find a solutions.

“Government by its very nature is political, it’s all about debate and compromise,” said Hausdorfer. “On the other hand, when you cut through it all, you need to create a consensus on where [government] is going and what you want it to do. . . . It’s not just dealing with the here and now, but with tomorrow and the next century.”

And no one says the juggling act will be easy.

“You just have to sit down and listen to the locals from the different areas and then make a decision you think is in the best interests of the district and the county as a whole,” Riley said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

5th District Snapshot

Orange County Supervisor Marian Bergeson of the 5th District announced recently she will step down to become Gov. Pete Wilson’s chief education advisor. Wilson must now find a replacement for the largest, most diverse district in the county. A quick look at the place:

Population: 548,000

Square miles: 319 (largest by about 60 square miles)

Largest city: Irvine, 122,000

Oldest city: Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906

Nod to GOP

The district’s 325,000 voters are about 2-1 Republican over Democrat, with a small group of independents and other parties accounting for the balance. Voter registration as of Sept. 22:

Republicans: 56%

Democrats: 27

Declined to state: 12

American Independent: 2

All others: 3

Sources: Orange County, Registrar of Voters