PUC Asked to OK Second County Area Code

An Orange County that’s been mostly unified since the 1960s by its 714 area code soon may be divided, with South County proposed to get a new area code: 949.

Local telephone companies, saying heavy demand caused by the proliferation of cell phones, pagers, computer modems and fax machines has made the new area code necessary, disclosed Thursday that they have asked the California Public Utilities Commission to put the new area code into effect as early as October 1997.

“Bottom line is, we just don’t want to run out of telephone numbers,” said Bruce Bennett, the California Area Code Relief coordinator. “This plan looks like it will be the least disruptive.”

The split would create about 5.2 million new numbers in South County and free up about 2.6 million numbers in the north.

While the county would be roughly split between north and south, some border cities such as Santa Ana and Irvine would have small sections in the other area code. The city of Costa Mesa would be cut in half along the Costa Mesa Freeway.

Cities and communities in the proposed 949 zone are: Aliso Viejo, Balboa, Capistrano Valley, Corona del Mar, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana Heights and most of Irvine. The rest of the county--except for Los Alamitos and Seal Beach, where the area code is 310--will keep the old 714 area code.

Not everybody is pleased by the plan.

Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea, whose city would also be bisected, said the new number can only hurt efforts to build community spirit. “I think that cutting up the city with area codes, ZIP Codes, supervisorial districts isn’t good. I think it’s important to unify a city,” she said.

Some businesses owners who will have to reprint everything from business cards to letterheads are already complaining.

“I can’t say anything too positive about the change,” said Gayle Metzler, a vice president of Aliso Viejo-based Armor All Products. The company employs about 130 people and Metzler estimated that the cost in business cards alone would be about $30,000.

“It’s a cost impact to us and an inconvenience to our long-term customers,” Metzler said.

Bennett, who wrote the proposal in concert with Pacific Bell, AT&T;, GTE and other telecommunications companies, has asked the PUC to implement the plan by Oct. 18, 1997--six months ahead of a state-mandated 15-month notification period before changing area codes. The companies cited the great demand for seeking quicker action.

PUC spokesman Richard Fish said Thursday the commission could rule on the start date of the new area code as early as Jan. 9.

“If it’s in the public interest, the commission could allow the phone companies to do it in less time than the statute allows,” Fish said.

When the plan is implemented, phone customers in the new area will have a six-month grace period, during which calls to either 714 or 949 will go through. After that, callers will get a recorded message telling them to redial.

“Eight out of every 10 new phone numbers issued now are dedicated to new technology, not just the conventional telephone,” said David Dickstein, spokesman for Pacific Telesis.

Still, he admits, there will be opposition to the change.

“No one will be 100% happy with the split, but it goes back to the old line, which is, there is no perfect split,” he said.

Officials in Costa Mesa said they understand the need for new numbers but worry the solution will bring problems to the city.

“The greatest impact would be confusion for some residents,” Deputy City Manager Don Lamm said.

He is concerned the split, which cuts across the city Costa Mesa at Adams Avenue and along the Cosa Mesa Freeway, would change numbers at City Hall, leaving some residents with one area code and their elected leaders with another.

“From a community neighborhood standpoint, creating multiple area codes isn’t helpful,” he said. “I’m shocked that it’s not following a more logical geographic boundary.”

Pacific Bell’s Dickstein said the phone companies tried to abide by political boundaries as much as possible, but the communications hardware, underground lines and switching stations made it impossible.

The proposed new area code is the outcome of more than a year of planning and meetings with the public and city and county government officials.

Telecommunications industry representatives had proposed several other plans over the past year, including splitting additional cities or overlaying area codes.

Overlaying, Bennett said, would give newer phone numbers the new area code while older numbers in the same geographic region would keep the old area code.

Bennett said the Federal Communications Commission ruled out overlaying area codes until after the year 2000.