Judge moves lawsuit over Costa Mesa motel ordinance closer to trial

A lawsuit challenging a Costa Mesa ordinance designed to curb the number of long-term tenants at city motels is heading to trial this fall.

On Wednesday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Fell denied Costa Mesa attorneys’ request for a judgment in the case without trial, paving the way for the matter to head to a jury as early as September.

The case, filed in Superior Court in 2014, contends that the City Council’s adoption of a law earlier that year limiting motels’ ability to house tenants for more than 30 days within a 60-day period violates state and federal housing and disability laws.

The suit was filed by a group called the Costa Mesa Motel Residents Assn. with help from the Public Law Center, a Santa Ana-based firm that provides free legal services to nonprofits and low-income residents in Orange County.

The ordinance was part of the council majority’s efforts at the time to address what it saw as problematic properties that contributed to neighborhood blight and crime. It required motels wishing to house long-term tenants to apply for a special permit and meet various requirements, including having at least 75 rooms and onsite amenities such as laundry facilities and in-room kitchens. Nearly all of the city’s motels did not meet those specifications at the time the ordinance was adopted.

Fell cited procedural errors in Costa Mesa’s latest legal filings, which a city attorney dismissed as “merely technical” deficiencies.

Fell questioned the attorney’s comment, saying, “So we don’t need rules, then?”

Costa Mesa attorneys have argued that federal housing law does not apply to motels — whose rooms are not intended for long-term stays — and that the plaintiffs have never been able to prove discrimination or other adverse effects as a result of the city’s rules.

They said that council member Jim Righeimer’s “stray remarks” — which included the contention that motel residents have “something” in their lives that is “not working” and that they should better themselves to fix it — are not direct evidence of illegal discrimination.

The Costa Mesa Motel Residents Assn. has contended that it will be able to prove discrimination. In court filings, it points to Righeimer’s remarks indicating his desire to replace motels — which generally house people of limited income — with luxury apartment complexes and younger tenants of higher means.

The group also has questioned the city’s contention that motel rooms are exempt from housing laws because, the group says, like traditional dwellings, motel residents treat the property as their home.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint