Appeals Court Blocks Occupancy Ordinance : Housing: Santa Ana’s law against overcrowding will not take effect until all hearings are over.

The city’s crackdown on overcrowded apartments was thwarted Friday when an appellate court temporarily blocked an ordinance that sets strict occupancy limits.

The 4th District Court of Appeals ordered that the ordinance not take effect until it hears appeals in the case. Last month, a Superior Court had upheld the ordinance, which limits occupancy of an average one-bedroom apartment to five people.

“It’s a disappointment that we cannot start to deal with this overcrowding now,” Mayor Daniel H. Young said Friday, “but we will just wait our time and make our case when we are given the opportunity.”

In the petition filed with the appellate court on behalf of Santa Ana assembly plant worker Ascension Briseno, immigrant rights attorney Richard L. Spix said people in at least 15,000 residences would face eviction or penalties under the ordinance.

“Half of Santa Ana can now unpack their bags,” Spix said of the reprieve granted by the three-judge panel.

Attorneys for both sides agreed it could be at least a year before appeals hearings are held.

“I hope that we proceed with an expedited appeal,” City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said, “because in my view, the city does not have an adequate enforcement mechanism for overcrowding.”

Legal experts consider this a test case with possible statewide ramifications, because Santa Ana is maintaining that cities have the right to set occupancy standards that are more restrictive than state law.

In a two-pronged argument, Cooper argued during the trial that the state housing occupancy standards are unconstitutional because only the California Building Standards Code may regulate building and occupancy issues; and that the housing code’s definition of “family” per dwelling unit was declared unconstitutional in a 1980 court case.

Without a valid state law, Cooper said, cities were free to set their own occupancy limits.

But Spix said that the housing code is valid and that Santa Ana did not comply with state guidelines when it approved its ordinance.

Spix said he was cautiously optimistic about the court’s decision to hear the case.

“I think it’s indicative of the importance of the case,” he said.

The current legal battle is the second time both sides have faced each other in court over the issue of residential overcrowding.

Last fall, the 4th District Court of Appeals struck down the city’s previous residential overcrowding ordinance, ruling it too restrictive. Under the city’s interpretation of the state housing code, officials said only four people could live in an average one-bedroom apartment. But the court said 10 residents was the allowable limit.

Faced with continuing pressure from citizen groups that abhor overcrowding because it causes neighborhood deterioration, the City Council approved a second ordinance last spring.

In response to the current legal challenge of the new ordinance, Cooper told the appellate court that “health, safety and public welfare considerations dictate against allowing unfettered overcrowding of dwelling units.”