Costa Mesa City Council members decided Tuesday to back a plan that would give them a crack at annexing some of the largely undeveloped Banning Ranch, which borders Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.
Leaders from both cities will meet today with Orange County's Local Agency Formation Commission, which decides annexations, to talk about whether unincorporated West Santa Ana Heights will be annexed to Newport Beach. Commission staff last week suggested three options: annexing West Santa Ana Heights to Newport Beach now, doing nothing, or annexing it in three phases with several conditions.
Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach, and now Costa Mesa, support the third option, which would require Newport Beach to give up part of a one-foot-wide strip of city property that essentially buffers Banning Ranch from being annexed to another city.
