Redondo Council Leery That Eyesore Bill Is Too Nosy

Peppered with complaints about neighborhood eyesores, the Redondo Beach City Council ordered the city staff last year to draft a comprehensive property maintenance ordinance.

But council members blanched when the proposal was unveiled Tuesday night and they found it would regulate everything from the pruning of trees to the placement of clotheslines.

“I’m very nervous about this ordinance,” said Councilman Terry Ward. “We don’t want something that is Big Brother looking down everyone’s throat.”

Said Councilwoman Barbara Doerr: “I want this ordinance burned as a public nuisance.”

City leaders decided to table the measure and consult residents on what to do to deal with property maintenance problems. They did so sheepishly, admitting that the city staff had given them what they had asked for.

“They did exactly what we directed them to do,” Mayor Brad Parton said. “But when we saw the direction we were going, we got a little nervous.”

Tuesday’s proposal would have prohibited a wide range of neighborhood “nuisances,” untrimmed hedges, unpruned trees and grass that exceeds six inches in height.

It would bar residents from stringing clotheslines in front or side yards or on porches or balconies, and would require them to keep dirt, lumber, concrete, refrigerators, stoves and other “rubbish or junk” out of sight.

Inoperative automobiles, trailers, campers and boats would have to be stored in buildings. And auto repair work visible from roads or neighboring property would be out of bounds unless done in an emergency or for minor maintenance.

The city already has property regulations addressing such areas as public safety and health. For instance, roofs have to be cleared of combustible leaves and branches, and lots must be kept free of stagnant water where mosquitoes can breed.

City officials say many provisions of the proposed ordinance would involve them in purely aesthetic concerns, such as outdoor clotheslines and the dimensions of hedges.

City planning chief Paul Connolly said Tuesday the ordinance was modeled on laws used successfully in cities elsewhere in the state. But council members said they would have a hard time stomaching the wide-ranging measure unveiled Tuesday.

Several Redondo Beach residents warned that voters would take a dim view of it, too.

“This really raises hairs on the back of my neck,” said Frank O’Leary, who lives on Prospect Avenue. “(This) is just another loss of individual liberty. This is another little forfeiture of our freedom.”

The momentum for some form of property ordinance has been provided by a steady stream of complaints. Connolly said Redondo Beach last year received 1,600 property-related complaints, many of them concerning neighborhood eyesores of the type addressed by the ordinance.

The problems range from cannibalized automobiles and car parts littering front yards to leaves blowing from a property owner’s hedge into a neighbor’s pool. According to the city staff, the problem of automobile clutter comes up often, but the city has little legal authority to stop it.

“It is very difficult,” said Mike Magdaleno, a city code-enforcement officer. “We usually have to go the route of seeing if they are conducting a (car repair) business out of their residence, which is illegal. But that is hard to find out.”

Ward says he and other council members field numerous complaints from residents who feel nearby eyesores are eroding their neighborhood’s property values and living standards.

“The problems usually come down to rentals, people who don’t own the property and don’t care about their neighbors,” he said Wednesday. “And often the landowner doesn’t care either. He’s just sitting on (the property), waiting for the day he can reap his reward.”

Council members agreed Tuesday to seek guidance on how to handle the property maintenance issue in meetings with constituents. One option several of them suggested is to sharpen the existing property maintenance regulations, not to create new ones.

Fears of excessive government control have clearly dampened the council’s enthusiasm for a more aggressive approach.

“Who is the judge, who is holier-than-thou to say ‘this is bad,’ and ‘this is good?’ ” Ward asked. “Certainly not me. . . . I’m the last person to push Big Brother down somebody’s throat.”