LA HABRA : Tough Anti-Graffiti Law Being Drafted

City officials are busy drafting an ordinance that would require business owners to lock up spray cans and etching tools and prohibit the sale of such materials to minors in an effort to control the graffiti problem here.

City Council members said they will consider the ordinance at next week’s council meeting and expect to adopt it within two months.

Councilman Steven C. Anderson, a leading advocate of the anti-graffiti ordinance, hopes passing such a law will stop or slow down such vandals.

“I see a problem and I don’t see it getting any better,” he said.

“Kids steal” graffiti-making materials, City Manager Lee Risner said. “You hope that (the ordinance) will at least make those materials less accessible. It’s a way of discouraging graffiti activity.”

The anti-graffiti ordinance will also penalize those caught and make parents responsible for removal of graffiti painted by their children. Schools will be required to remind students that their driver’s licenses can be suspended if they are caught defacing property.

Anderson said the surge of graffiti vandalism in La Habra upsets residents and frustrates volunteers who constantly paint out graffiti.

“A lot of volunteer groups have been working hard to get rid of graffiti for years and years and they need some relief,” he said.

“It’s gotten so bad that we need a strong ordinance,” Councilman James Flora said. The city’s other council members agree.

“I hope we can slow (graffiti vandalism) down and eventually get rid of it,” Anderson said.