Wanted land, encroaching residents

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- There is no such thing as a free lunch -- or free use of

public parkland, residents discovered Tuesday at the City Council

meeting.

In an effort to stop Swan Drive residents from encroaching on a narrow

strip of Fairview Park land that runs adjacent to about 30 homes, the

council asked staff to look into the possibility of selling the land to

the homeowners.

Council members voted 3 to 2 to explore options to allow residents to

continue using the land they have developed and maintained, saying the

property was not useful to the public anyway.

“For the life of me, I’m trying to figure out what we would do with

that property besides weeds,” Councilman Gary Monahan said.

Councilwoman Libby Cowan had an answer: Use the property as bargaining

chips for some heavily contested items in the Fairview Park master plan.

Cowan did not support the council’s action because it did not

specifically call for negotiations with Swan Drive homeowners, who are

many of the same people who have loudly protested a neighborhood park and

parking structure for Fairview Park.

“I cannot support this because I believe the council must state

strongly that we need something in return,” Cowan said.

Councilman Chris Steel also dissented.

On Swan Drive along Fairview Park, backyards of various sizes jut

out, forming a ragged border along a strip of parkland that runs between

the homes and a flood channel. On the other side of the channel is the

main section of Fairview Park.

But that jagged property line along the residential area should run

straight, according to a city map, meaning about 20 of 32 backyards

illegally encroach on the public park, said Bill Morris, the city’s

public services director.

Many homeowners said they did not know they were encroaching on

parkland when they made improvements to what they thought was their

property. Instead of paying the high costs to move solid brick walls and

rearrange backyard landscaping, homeowners are offering to buy the land

in question.

“I don’t really want to buy the land, but it would be a lot cheaper

than paying $30,000 to tear down, move and rebuild a solid wall,”

resident Steve Devey said.

Devey and his neighbors also said the land was inaccessible to the

public and has no value as parkland.

“The area behind our house is a weedkiller strip of land. It has no

value to the city, apparent by the fact that the city hasn’t maintained

it,” Mary Cromwell said.

Bob Graham, a Fairview Park enthusiast who has been at odds with some

of the Swan Drive residents because of their opposition to certain park

improvements, said it was ironic that the homeowners would say the land

had no value but in the same breath offer to buy it.

Former Mayor Sandra Genis said it doesn’t matter what the property was

worth, it is clearly a case of right and wrong.

“If our [tax] money is used to pay for public parks, it must be used

for parks and nothing else,” Genis said. “It is horrible. You don’t take

something that doesn’t belong to you. And if you’ve done it unknowingly,

you return it with profuse apologies.

“As I recall, the city had no problem kicking poor people off of

parkland when they were using it for their own recreational use,” Genis

said.

Council members decided to postpone the item to allow time to consider

some of the legal consequences that surround the property. Because

Fairview Park was purchased from the county in 1986 at a reduced cost,

the purchase agreement states Costa Mesa must retain a certain amount of

parkland “as recreational open space in perpetuity for the benefit of the

public.”