City to Consider No-Camping Ordinance : Homeless: Garden Grove mayor says vagrants are taking over its parks and that he fears an overflow of those displaced from Santa Ana.

Claiming that homeless people are scaring away residents from city parks, the mayor has asked city attorneys to look into drafting an ordinance prohibiting camping in parks and shopping centers.

Mayor W.E. (Walt) Donovan, who acknowledges that homelessness is “a tough problem,” said he is also taking into account efforts by Santa Ana to evict the homeless from the Civic Center area. He said he fears that Santa Ana’s displaced homeless may drift into Garden Grove.

“I periodically get complaints from people about (the homeless) sleeping in parks and taking up residency there,” Donovan said Wednesday. “It seems like we should have some kind of control. People are becoming afraid to use the parks.”

Donovan said efforts should concentrate on people who stay at parks “for months,” not those who might use them for a night during an emergency.

Donovan’s bid for a no-camping ordinance was supported by Councilman Frank Kessler.

“We need to control camping,” Kessler said. “It’s impacting businesses” near Haster Street and Chapman and Lampson avenues in the vicinity of Pioneer and Twin Lakes parks.

Kessler said store owners in the area have told him that business has fallen about 40%, reportedly because the homeless “are badgering” customers for handouts and customers have begun avoiding the area.

“The city has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the homeless,” he said. “It’s time we return the parks to the people and to the use they were intended.”

The city has invested in a small apartment building in the Buena Clinton area near Santa Ana for use by the homeless, Kessler said.

Donovan said recently that Garden Grove should back efforts by Santa Ana and Orange to limit the number of occupants in residences. Kessler agreed.

“I’m absolutely in favor of Santa Ana,” Kessler said. “Overcrowding has taken over entire neighborhoods. It’s putting a tremendous demand on services and has a devastating impact on property values of single-family homes.”

Earlier this week, the city of Orange retreated from an ordinance limiting occupants per dwelling unit after the state appeals court overturned a similar ordinance in Santa Ana. Santa Ana officials are expected to file an appeal to the state Supreme Court later this month.

Santa Ana also earlier in the month postponed enforcement of an anti-camping ordinance that would make it illegal to camp, sleep or store personal belongings on public property.