DANA POINT : Ordinance Curbing Overcrowding OKd

To the delight of a standing-room-only audience, the City Council this week preliminarily approved a strict ordinance aimed at curtailing apartment overcrowding.

The ordinance, written by the Apartment Assn. of Orange County and adapted to fit Dana Point, imposes a limit of three permanent occupants per bedroom per apartment, and at least 120 square feet of living space for each resident.

Most of those in the crowd that packed the council chambers Tuesday night burst into applause after the unanimous council vote.

“We have a combination of problems, and we need a combination of solutions,” Councilwoman Eileen Krause said. “This ordinance is a first step.”

The ordinance’s adoption is contingent on a commitment of financial support from the apartment association to defend the ordinance against possible court challenges, which have taken place against similar ordinances in other cities, including Santa Ana, the city attorney said.

The council is seeking the assurance of such financial support in writing within two weeks, when the ordinance is scheduled for final consideration.

Rich Lambros, a spokesman for the apartment group, stopped short of guaranteeing money for any legal defense but urged the city to adopt the ordinance and said his group will negotiate with city officials.

The ordinance has long been sought by city apartment owners and dwellers, particularly in the Lantern Village section, a patchwork of duplexes, triplexes and other apartment houses intermingled with single-family homes.

Before the council vote, 16 Lantern Village residents pleaded to the council for help with crime, theft and drug abuse problems that they said accompany such overcrowding.

“Overcrowding is the root of all these problems,” resident Richard McKay said. “We won’t be able to reclaim these property areas unless you act now.”

Before the vote, the council had been warned by City Atty. Jerry Patterson about potential legal problems that could accompany the ordinance’s enforcement.

But most of the night’s speakers urged the council to take the chance of such challenges. “It’s time the city had the guts to stand up to this problem,” said Dennis Vlach, owner of an apartment building in Lantern Village. “We can’t live with it.”

Enforcement of the ordinance, however, remains the No. 1 problem, council members said. They asked city staff members to study enforcement problems and report potential solutions at a later meeting.

“I, for one, would not be in favor of night raids and knocking down doors,” Councilwoman Judy Curreri said. “This is an economic problem and cultural problem (that is) extremely complex.”

“We want (the apartment group) to indemnify the city,” Mayor Mike Eggers said. “We’ll have our attorney defend it if we need to, but we want them to fund it.”

Eggers called the ordinance a bid to control a problem he considers a threat to the city’s current standard of living.

“The bottom line is this gives the city a legal way to attack the blatant overcrowding occurring throughout the city,” he said. “We need to have some law on the books, and we don’t have it now.”