Orange County, CA November 3, 1998 General
Smart Voter

The Intelligent Choice - Annexation!

By Ron Winship

Candidate for City Council; City of Newport Beach; District 4

This information is provided by the candidate
A greater Newport Beach establishs us as the key player in regional decision making.
Conventional wisdom tells us that property values along the coast will not fall in value, even during tough economic times. The past council failed to compromise with the first try at annexation for Santa Ana Heights, attempting to lay the intital cost burden on the people that live there. Sadly, their strategy of giving Santa Ana Heights a Newport Beach Zip Code took away a key lever to encourage further rational discussion. Santa Ana Heights is key to control and decision making regarding the John Wayne Airport. Should the FAA or the County try to extend the runways at JWA, with Santa Ana Heights as part of Newport Beach - this would be far more diffcult. Then why was this not a priority for our current council members? The present council has shown an elitist attitude, suggesting that all areas under consideration for annexation should be begging to join our fair city. But at what cost, and why would our council that is so concerned with additional flights out of John Wayne Airport not sense the urgency of this strategic move?

The annexation of the Newport Downcoast is the most important issue our city will ever face. The conservative financial extapolations of our past City Manager say that it is a $3 million dollar plus to Newport Beach intitially. The opposition suggests that the residents of Newport Coast want too much. What they want is to be treated as a equal partner in our city, by sharing police, fire and trash services and being represented in one councilmatic district. What Newport Coast brings to the party is control over future development, traffic impact and prestige for the entire city, not to mention a broader pay as you go tax base.

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: November 2, 1998 20:47
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