BATTLE LINES FORM ON 805 AREA CODE : THE CHANGES.

Byline: Christopher Noxon and Amy Collins Daily News Staff Writers

Let the digit wars begin.

Public officials and business leaders from five counties faced off Thursday for the first time over the splintering of their one common interest: the 805 area code. At half capacity and filling up fast, 805 is headed for a split that has business, political and community interests forming impromptu alliances for turf wars.

Regulators reviewed more than half a dozen options Thursday to divide the area code along a variety of boundaries, from mountain ridges to county lines. After an advisory vote, the options were narrowed to two.

``We really want to get more input from the public on which one they prefer,'' said Doug Hescox, an official in the California Code Administration.

One option would keep 805 for a portion of Los Angeles County paired with Ventura County and the Mojave area of Kern County. The other option would keep Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley in the same area code.

Six more meetings will be held before a determination is made, Hescox said. They will include one in Ventura County the last week of May. There will be meetings June 3 in Lancaster and June 4 in Santa Clarita.

Each of the options was designed, Hescox said, to disrupt the fewest people while satisfying the seemingly insatiable appetite for new numbers.

``We're trying to come up with the plan that impacts the fewest people,'' Hescox said, ``but it's a very hard job. Someone will be inconvenienced no matter what we do.''

The Santa Clarita City Council sent Jesse Juarros, its general services manager, to the Thousand Oaks meeting to lobby for a configuration that would keep a portion of Los Angeles County, along with Ventura County, in the area using the 805 code.

Juarros said the discussions Thursday seemed to lean in favor of grouping the coastal counties together since Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo work together on many projects.

One of the largest areas using a single telephone code in the state, 805 territory includes most of Ventura County, all of Santa Barbara County, most of San Luis Obispo and Kern counties and parts of Los Angeles County. A portion of Monterey County also would be involved in the creation of a new area code.

Population in the 805 area has grown dramatically in the 40 years since the code was assigned to it, and the demand for more phone lines has exploded in the past few years. The area must be split by the end of 1999 to satisfy the voracious appetite for lines for fax machines, pagers, modems and other electronics communication equipment.

State regulators must decide who will feel the sting of the split. While telephone users concede the need, few are volunteering to be in an area assigned a new phone code while the rest keep the 805 code. Merchants complain of the added cost and inconvenience of altering everything from business cards to letterheads to invoices.

As quickly became apparent Thursday, the area code is far more than a three-digit number.

``It's part of their identity,'' said Walter Mosley, manager of government affairs for AT&T. ``Communities identify themselves according to their area code. Any time you want to change that identity, people are resistant.''

How would you like your 805 area code sliced? Here are the options being considered. In each split, either half could be assigned the new area code.

Option 1

Northern Los Angeles and Ventura counties, plus Rosamond, Mojave and Edwards Air Force Base.

San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Monterey counties, plus western Kern County.

Option 2

Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Northern Los Angeles and Kern counties.

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