City looks to crack down on urban scrawl

Costa Mesa officials say they are trying to arm themselves with a new weapon for fighting graffiti.City staff members are drafting an ordinance that, they say, would better help the city go after vandals whether they are adults or parents and guardians of individuals younger than 18.

“The graffiti ordinance does a pretty good job already, but we want to enhance it, and we’ve researched, and the council had heard about some other improvements that other cities had made to their issues,” said Costa Mesa Assistant City Manager Tom Hatch.

The new ordinance will include language that would allow the city to hold vandals responsible for any damage caused to city property. The city’s existing ordinance does not contain such a provision, Hatch said.

City staff researched Santa Ana and West Covina’s graffiti ordinances, as both include effective measures for dealing with the issue, Hatch said.

The new ordinance, which will be presented to the City Council for consideration and approval in about a month, will go after vandals for the cost of removing graffiti and for the time city staff and police spend tracking, documenting and removing graffiti.

This effort goes hand-in-hand with the city’s adoption of the new graffiti tracking system in the county called the Tracking and Automated Graffiti Reporting System, which documents graffiti from its color to its moniker and shares the information with other agencies.

The new ordinance would better define the meaning of graffiti and identify the tools used to commit acts of graffiti, including drill bits, which can be used for etching into glass or mirrors, Hatch said.The goal is to ensure that the city will have all options available to go after vandals, he said.

The ordinance also includes a provision for working with business owners to ensure that local stores don’t sell spray paint to teenagers.

Most graffiti in the city is committed by taggers and not gangs, Hatch said.

The city spends about $250,000 a year on removing graffiti. Finding a way to lower that amount is one of the city’s goals.

“It’s a shame to have to spend that much,” Hatch said.

To report graffiti in Costa Mesa, call (714) 327-7491.