Neighborhood Can Be Model for Safety : Cooperative French Court Area Is Logical Place to Begin Code-Enforcement Effort

Santa Ana’s French Court neighborhood is a good target for the city’s new pilot program designed to step up building-code enforcement. A committee of residents and owners picked it because it had the first ingredient of any neighborhood improvement program--the willingness of the community to cooperate.

But the area also has enough problems to pose a challenge and a model for other neighborhoods in need of a boost. Located between Washington Avenue and 17th Street, east of Main Street, it has 132 residential properties, 98 of which are either rental houses or apartments.

Stepped up code enforcement is especially crucial in Santa Ana because of difficulties the city has had with overcrowding and unsafe living conditions. The new year began with a grim-enough reminder when a woman and two children died in a fire in a crowded five-bedroom home on South Alder Street. City officials said that while the number of residents in that house did not actually exceed legal limits, there is evidence enough in Santa Ana of danger of fires from problems related to overcrowding.

Moreover, the political battle in Santa Ana that has been stirred over the code-enforcement issue makes a pilot program that does not hinge on routing immigrants especially timely. The city need not wait to target a model neighborhood for cracking down on building-code violations for any resolution of the wrangling between the city, state and courthouses over the number of people who can live legally in an apartment.

The French Court program will center on enlisting landlords to cooperate in scheduling building code inspections. It hinges on incentives for cooperation, not punishment. Jim Lindgren, city building safety inspector, says, “Reasonableness is the name of the game here.” Amen.

The idea is to take this neighborhood, which has an above-average crime rate, and look for faulty wiring, leaky plumbing or other signs of Health and Safety Code violations. Some apartment owners have been grumbling about a new business license tax levied to pay for policing the violators; the city is charging building owners an extra $17.50 each per year for each of the city’s estimated 37,000 residential rental units for seven years, to pay for nine full-time building inspectors.

But if a neighborhood begins to get back on track, if people have confidence that they are making a difference, then the property values can increase, and everybody will feel better about the neighborhood. That’s no small payoff for a little sacrifice.