New Area Code Likely for North L.A. County

Residents of Santa Clarita, Lancaster and Palmdale will most likely have a new area code before the onset of the millennium.

A proposal submitted Wednesday to the California Public Utilities Commission calls for the current 805 code to be split, with most of Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties retaining the old code.

Northern Los Angeles County and most of Kern County will get a new area code. Also covered by the new code will be parts of the scarcely populated regions of northern Ventura County and small slivers of Kings, Tulare, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

The proposal, which calls for the split to go into effect in February 1999, needs final approval from the Public Utilities Commission. But the commission has never gone against an industry recommendation, according to California-Nevada Code Administration spokesman Chris Kniestedt.

“That’s never happened before, and we have received a lot of community input, so I don’t see why it would happen now,” Kniestedt said.

The commission is expected to issue a decision by Nov. 1. The new area code, if approved, will be California’s 24th.

Callers would have a six-month grace period where they could dial either the new area code, which has not been announced, or the 805 area code.

The area code proposal was submitted by the California-Nevada Code Administration, the telecommunications industry group that has overseen regional telephone number distribution since 1984.

The industry group, which represents more than 30 telecommunications companies including Pacific Bell, GTE and AT&T;, unveiled two plans this spring to divide the 805 area code, both of which would have kept Ventura County largely intact. The plans were then discussed at a series of public meetings, including a May 29 hearing at Camarillo City Hall.

One plan would have divided the 805 area code on a north/south basis, lumping Ventura County in with portions of Los Angeles and Kern counties.

The other, splitting the code on an east/west line, proved more popular with Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo leaders, who fought to keep the coastal counties under the same code.

However, residents should not grow too comfortable with their area code. Because of the growing demand for telecommunications services, the projected life span of the redesigned 805 telephone area is still only nine to 10 years.