FEEDBACK -- Should a resident have to build a garage after 50

years?

I am writing about the Costa Mesa Code enforcement on Dave Morley’s

garage. I have been a Costa Mesa resident for about 12 years. I purchased

a home in College Park in 1996. I know of at least several other

residents that have converted garages into living rooms and bedrooms and

the like. These are older, original owners that are living on fixed

incomes. What to do about these code breakers?

I think at some point you have to draw the line. Maybe there could be

a need to draw up criteria before the witch hunt to review these on a

case-by-case basis. It is extremely unfair for them to revert back to

what they would want because it sets a bad precedent. These changes are

what you need to do when you apply for a new permit or when the house is

sold. Ask any Realtor in the area to comment on this.

I agree it would be fair for the code enforcement officials to require

him to bring things up to modern standards during this process, but not

out of a process of special selection. What is next: the color we paint

our houses or the type of brick we use when we re-landscape the driveway?

The types of bushes we plant in the front yard? Is this where they are

going?

There is a need for code enforcement. I don’t want people’s houses to

look like junkyards or auto garages or present hazards for kids who are

playing around them. Personally, I will be the first one to ask Dave

Morley how I can help contribute to his fine and I know my friends will

also help.

I hope that Costa Mesa code enforcement will stop at some point and

redirect this negative energy by improving blighted areas such as 17th

Street’s old office buildings, signage or 19th street by demolishing the

shopping centers and building new houses.

Let’s move on and look at something that would make a significant

improvement on the quality of life in Costa Mesa instead of this man’s

bedroom.

STEVE HEKMAN

Costa Mesa

Shame on Costa Mesa. The transition took place 50 years ago and

furthermore, he purchased it as it is today. Where was the city when the

“Pink House” (which by the way is a lovely addition to the city now) and

its residents were living in squalid conditions. Nosey Costa Mesa never

did anything about that for that matter and never contacted social

services. There are recent valid illegal conditions in the city. A

50-year-old unlicensed condition is not one of them. Proof of original

transition should grandfather those and the city should move on to those

that are occurring as we speak.

I.L. KRINSKY

Costa Mesa

I think you will see after reading the following that the problem is

more than Dave Morley’s garage. The city needs to eliminate its double

standard of code enforcement: one for Costa Mesa residents and another

for the city itself.

There should be some kind of grandfather clause for cases like Dave

Morley’s. He is not renting out his garage, which would definitely be a

problem. The house was bought and sold with it converted many years ago.

However, I am not for converting garages into anything that removes

them from their original purpose -- parking your car.

Ironically, what brought this issue to the public’s attention is Costa

Mesa’s new code enforcement. Should the city be held to the same

standards as it is holding its citizens to?

Take a walk down the city “maintained” alley between Flower Street and

Broadway in the 300 block. We have been trying for 20 years to get the

city to clean up the alley. It is overgrown with weeds (a violation for

residential property); it is littered with huge potholes and no pavement

for the most part (a violation for residential property); it is dangerous

and an eyesore (also a violation for residential property). During the

winter rains, it is called Lake Flower Street. I have had to sandbag my

garage to keep the water out. Many of us have built nice, new garages off

the alley to eliminate street parking. Unfortunately, driving down our

alley to get to our garages is worse than many off-road trips I have

taken.

All of our pleas to the city are answered with the same response. It

is not a priority and there is no money. How can the city require its

residents to maintain their property to higher levels when the city

doesn’t maintain its own?

Bottom line is that I believe that both the residents and the city

should be held to the same high levels of code enforcement. Let’s clean

up the entire city, not just target specific residents.

JOE GLEASON

Costa Mesa