Condos: We’re not a toilet, so pay up

Transients who have taken up residency at Canyon Park in Costa Mesa have repeatedly broken the fence separating the park from the Newport Terrace condominium complex “in order to use the complex’s common area as a bathroom,” according to a complaint that the complex’s lawyers filed with the city.

The attorneys have submitted a stack of repair bills totaling $1,200 to the city that the complex’s owners want reimbursed.

And to prevent it from happening again, the complaint forcefully asks that Costa Mesa either install bathrooms in the park or put up a more effective barricade, ensuring that the feces stay on the other side regardless of whether they are left in a toilet or the bushes.

“In addition to the repeated expense of repairing the fence, the trespass of persons from city property onto the association’s property to urinate and defecate could create an unreasonable health and safety hazard to the association’s residents, including children,” the complaint states.

The park is one of the most natural in Costa Mesa, with no manicured lawns or playgrounds. Nestled in a winding ravine between a number of bluff-top apartment complexes and housing tracts, the area is covered with tall old evergreen trees, eucalyptus and a variety of shrubs.

Six-foot-tall chain-link fences block off the front and back yards of the houses abutting the canyon.

Because of its secluded, quiet nature and close proximity to civilization — just a quick turn off of Victoria Street on the way to Huntington Beach — it’s easy to see how the park might be a popular locale for the area’s homeless.

The fence was repaired in July and before that in March, according to invoices submitted by the association.

The city’s public services director, Peter Naghavi, said he could not comment on whether the city was considering complying with the demands of the claim, but noted that the fence the developer chose to install was “very light-duty” and only had a single “no trespassing” sign.