Legislating Neighborliness : Ordinance: Solana Beach may soon get an all-encompassing public nuisance law, and not everyone in town is happy about it.

All you Solana Beach cracked-driveway scofflaws, window breakers and laundry hangers, rest easy. After some thought, the City Council is not going to whip out its lawmaking guns and legislate you into the next millennium.

But for everyone else, all bets are off.

And that means you--the guy who’s kept that jalopy parked outside his front yard since Elvis’ first birthday. And you--the pack rat who let his discarded rubbish turn the back stoop into Mt. Trashmore.

And that old unlocked refrigerator out in the garage?

It’s a goner.

Even now, the city is making its list--and checking it twice--of all those activities that officials consider to be a public nuisance. Soon, after they’ve weighed what’s naughty and what’s nice, Solana Beach city fathers will unveil their new Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance.

“Hey, I’m the first guy to admit that there are already too many laws in America,” said city Planning Director Steven Apple. “But there is a difference between too many laws and the right kind of laws.”

In Solana Beach, the new preservation ordinance is seen as just that kind of law. Planners view it as a way to fight against all of your neighbor’s nerve-racking habits and practices like leaving an uncovered trench, which might be dangerous to you and your children.

If passed, the new ordinance would reduce the red tape involved before the city could take action on its thoughtless, suburban lawbreakers. Currently, officials must follow an expensive and time-consuming legal process to remedy many neighborhood disputes.

The process involves at least two City Council hearings to bring an offender to prosecution. The preservation ordinance would allow the city attorney to become directly involved after a complaint has been filed.

Critics of the new ordinance say residents’ rights are being lost, even as we speak. The new ordinance, they say, is like dreaming up some wacky new list of condominium-style CC&Rs--covenants;, codes and restrictions--for the whole blessed city.

“It’s over-regulation,” said Councilwoman Marion Dodson, who has voted for a scaled-down version of the ordinance. “My feeling is that less government is better. I’m not really interested in making any more new laws.”

Numerous Solana Beach residents have contacted Dodson with similar sentiments, she said.

“People are telling me that they just didn’t bargain for these kinds of laws when they moved into Solana Beach, and they don’t want them now,” she said. “It’s a city, not a condominium development.

“People feel that if they’ve got problems with their neighbor over something like trash in the back yard, they should talk to them--and not call upon the city to make it some super police force.”

Apple said the proposed ordinance is patterned after similar laws in Escondido and the Los Angeles area. After seeing an article in a public administration magazine, city staffers sat down to compile their own list of the most offensive neighborhood problems.

“It was sort of like a top hits list,” he said, “a collection of code enforcement complaints we have received from the public over the last five years. They were the things that seemed to cause people the most grief.”

Some of the best-known complaints, Apple said, were immediately scratched from the city’s list; like making sure broken windows were fixed or that cracks in driveways be mended.

“Believe it or not, that’s been a big complaint here over the years,” he said. “People will call and say, ‘My neighbor’s property doesn’t look real good.’ Often realtors who want to sell a house will call the city and complain in an effort to see that the immediate area is spruced up a bit.

“That didn’t wash with us and so we cut it. But you would be surprised over the number of people who would like to see that and some other items left on the list.”

Recently, a preliminary list of 17 possible items was submitted to the City Council, which quickly axed a would-be ban on hanging laundry outdoors as an unsightly nuisance.

The council then directed staff members to return with a condensed list of don’ts for its consideration. The ordinance is set for review Feb. 18.

Right now, Apple said, the list includes bans on abandoned cars, and nuisances such as discarded machines and uncovered trenches. Also included are items against trash buildup that attracts bugs or rodents, and a requirement for people to fence in or cover their accumulated trash.

“In America, one has a right to be a pack rat,” Apple said. “But the majority of people--neighbors, I mean--don’t want to have to look at it.”

The city’s list also includes what critics have called questionable items--such as the removal of dead, decayed and hazardous trees, broken attic vents and peeling paint.

Seymour Phillips said, however, that he’s got more serious concerns than the next guy’s peeling paint.

The Solana Beach condominium owner, who owns a unit overlooking the ocean, thinks the ordinance would whip into shape some scofflaw owners of commercial property near his home.

“There’s a group of a commercial motels and trailer courts that are way behind the times,” he said. “They’ve turned into barrios. There’s graffiti, fences in disrepair. No sidewalks.

“Why should these absentee commercial landowners be able to leave their places looking like an outhouse? That’s what this new law is designed to stop. Absolutely.”

Solana Beach Councilman Richard Hendelin agreed that the proposed new law was no joke, not the result of any politician venting a spleen for power.

“There are some very serious public health and safety issues we’re trying to address,” he said. “Many of them are already included in various building codes or public health laws.

“In the past, it has been a very lengthy process to deal with these issues. This new ordinance would fix that. A process that once took perhaps months could be accomplished much more quickly.”

Even though the city has struck the clothes-hanging matter from consideration in the proposed new law, that hasn’t stopped residents from airing their own dirty laundry.

“We just got a letter this morning from someone who sent along a picture of laundry hanging in a neighbor’s yard,” Hendelin said.

“The writer was mad. They said that if they were looking to buy a house in Solana Beach, they certainly wouldn’t buy it in that neighborhood.”