LAGUNA HILLS : Code-Enforcement Plan to be Reworked

Although the city has no widespread problems with property owners obeying municipal codes, Laguna Hills officials are planning a code-enforcement program to target a few areas that have generated complaints.

Since its incorporation in 1991, the city has received 193 complaints of code violations and public nuisances, 152 of which came in 1993.

“It’s almost invariably illegal front yard storage” that draws complaints, said Don White, the city’s administrative services director. “Things like wood piles, sinks, refrigerators, trailers, inoperative vehicles.”

About 85% of the complaints come from neighborhoods that do not have homeowners associations, White said. Property owners who are the objects of complaints are notified by letter and in nine out of 10 cases, they remove the nuisance, he said. Others are referred to the city attorney’s office for legal action.

The city contracts with a private firm, BSI Consultants Inc., for code enforcement. In 1993, the company spent 969 hours, nearly 6.4 hours per complaint, and charged the city a total of $52,326 for its services.

Rather than maintaining the reactive approach to complaints, White said, the city is planning a program that once or twice a year would seek out code violations in neighborhoods not controlled by homeowners associations. The review would be done by an inspector driving streets and recording nuisances based on what is visible from a car--what White referred to as a “windshield survey.”

At this time, White said, it’s impossible to say whether the new program would result in the handling of more or fewer code violations.

But in an effort to decrease the number of violations--and costs to the city of dealing with them--the program may also include an educational effort in which flyers would be circulated or neighborhood meetings would be held to notify residents of potential problems.

“We don’t have a big problem in this city,” White said, “and we feel a real selective, pro-active educational effort once a year is going to achieve some tremendous results.”

White briefed the City Council on the code-enforcement situation this week. He said city staff will present a proposal for operation of the new program to the council March 8.