SOUNDING OFF:

We’re starting to have a problem in Costa Mesa with boarded-up properties that seem to have permanent “temporary” fences around them. Some stay in this state for years.

The intent of such fencing is to keep the properties from being eyesores and from hosting illicit activities.

Unfortunately, some of these fences just seem to barely mask the boarded-up property and end up being part of the problem, not part of the solution.

With the way our municipal code is written, the city has cornered itself with these fences and boarded-up properties.

If the city asks a property owner to put up such a fence and the owner complies, the city ends up with both a boarded-up property and an ugly fence and thereafter has a difficult time naming the property a public nuisance.

The boarded-up property with the fence can then stay that way for years.

When residents have complained about this, City Council members usually reply that there’s nothing they can do about the problem.

Nothing they can do? Nonsense. They’re the lawmakers in this city. If the law doesn’t work, then revise it.

And, revise it they must. The problem with our codes is even worse than what I alluded to above. They have loopholes big enough for an army of homeless people pushing shopping carts, 20 abreast, to go through. And, don’t think that may not be happening to some degree in some of these boarded-up and fenced properties.

So, at a recent City Council meeting, I suggested to the council members that they may wish to consider changing our codes regarding vacant properties and public nuisances to include the following provisions, which are now missing:

 Add a catch-all preamble giving the policy reasons for these codes;

 Add a time limit on keeping a property boarded-up or fenced;

 Require that a property owner prominently post his or hercontact information on the property;

 Charge owners for the extra enforcement that their boarded-up properties require if they remain boarded up past a fair and reasonable grace period.

 Revise the definition of public nuisance so that negative economic and negative aesthetic effects can be used to declare a boarded-up or fenced property a public nuisance.

I also suggested that the council may want to look at the relevant municipal codes from the cities of Long Beach, Sacramento, Stockton and Richmond. Each has some pieces of the language we need in Costa Mesa.

Mayor Pro Tem Eric Bever then asked the city manager to look into this and then report back.

With a little bit of luck, the council will soon make the necessary changes to meet present realities.

Then, maybe, some of our neighborhoods that are suffering as a result of having long-term boarded-up and fenced properties in their midst will see some improvement.

M. H. MILLARD is a Costa Mesa writer.