Residents Defend Their Encroachment on Parkland

On city maps and deed documents, the property line dividing Fairview Park from the houses on Swan Drive in Costa Mesa is a clear, straight, nonnegotiable boundary.

But you would never know that from walking through residents’ backyards. Tim and Mary Cromwell’s fence and those of their neighbors on either side, for example, extend their backyards 2 1/2 feet into the public park.

Out beyond, the Cromwells have placed planters and a tiki bar, which Mary Cromwell said is too ugly to allow into the backyard proper but is “perfect if we have a party and people want to hang out back there.”

Costa Mesa is not the only city where residents have colonized bits and pieces of public land for private use. Encroachment occurs in almost every city, officials say, and often, as in Huntington Beach, officials turn a blind eye to the planters and picnic tables that appear on unused public land. In other cases, agencies fight a constant battle to keep homeowners off public property.

But nowhere in the area is the land battle more pitched right now than behind the 30 homes on Swan Drive that back up to Fairview Park. City staff estimate that 20 of the homeowners have illegally extended their backyards--some by as much as 20 feet--into what is technically a city park. Flowers, sprinklers, patios, tables, tomato plants and even a futuristic garden full of silver spheres have sprouted.

Many of these gardens have been there for years but have become controversial only in recent months, since Sandy Genis, a former mayor of Costa Mesa, launched a campaign to have the city force residents off the property.

“This is land that the taxpayers of Costa Mesa have paid for, and the taxpayers should be able to use it,” Genis said. “You don’t take what doesn’t belong to you. I don’t see it as a difficult moral conundrum.”

Residents say the land is not being used or maintained by the city.

“The people who are using it are using it as gardens,” said Mike Edles, who lives on park-side property that keeps to its original boundaries. “They are adding value and adding to the park.”

Genis, who said she plans to sue the city if it does not force homeowners from the land, scoffed at residents’ statements that the property is otherwise unusable.

“The land there is larger than many of the pocket parks that we have,” she said. “The only thing that stops it from being used is that any time anyone tries to use it, [the residents] say it’s going to impede their privacy.”

The mayor of Santa Monica said such occasional incursions without permits are not tolerated in his city. City workers immediately require homeowners to pull back onto their own land, Mayor Michael Feinstein said.

Many officials point out that cities face tremendous liability issues if they allow residents to build on public land. If someone was hurt on such land, even if the adjacent property’s owner had fenced it in himself, the injured person could sue the city.

The Costa Mesa homeowners contend that the parkland they are using represents an unusual case: a strip about 20 feet wide, separated from the rest of the park by a fenced-off flood-control channel. Although the grassy strip is accessible to the public, few use it.

Many residents say they would like to buy the land. Some, such as the Cromwells, said that their fences were already extended when they bought their houses and that they were under the impression they owned the extra land.

But city officials probably won’t allow homeowners to buy the land, residents acknowledged, because it is designated as public park space in a city that is in need of parks. The City Council is studying the issue and will draft an ordinance as soon as March.

“My task is to make sure the same opportunities are afforded to all citizens,” said Bill Morris, Costa Mesa’s public services director. “The city codes are very specific; they say no encroachment without a permit.”

Policies vary in other areas of Orange County.

The county strictly enforces its policy against parks encroachment by homeowners, said Bob Hamilton, interim manager of the county Department of Beaches, Harbors and Parks.

In Dana Point, about six times a year code enforcement officers give warnings to residents who have built walls, patios and other structures on the public beach, said Deanne Baptista of the municipal planning department.

In Yorba Linda, residents who live adjacent to a public horse trail have for years been building fences and planting trees in the public right of way.

“I think frankly a lot of people don’t know where their property line is,” said Roy Stephenson, public works director for Yorba Linda. But he said encroachments are not seen as a big problem in that city. When city officials come across such cases, he said, they merely ask residents to apply for permits so that the city cannot be held liable if someone is injured on the land.

Some Huntington Beach residents have taken over alleys and flood channels, decorating them with flowers, trees, patios and picnic tables, said Mayor Pam Julien.

Julien said she sees these property extensions from her car while driving around the city--and isn’t bothered by them. If the city ever needed the land, she said, it would simply ask residents to vacate it.

“It’s human nature that people want to expand their horizons,” said Newport Beach Councilwoman Norma Glover. A few years ago, officials realized that they were facing a big problem with residents in West Newport, who had appropriated massive segments of valuable public beach land for barbecues, decks and other extensions of backyard recreation.

“What you have to do is gradually pull people out of the public right of way and into their backyards,” Glover said.

But Newport found that in some cases, telling homeowners to stay off the beach was about as effective as trying to tell waves to do the same.

Ultimately, the City Council decided to charge residents an annual encroachment fee of up to $600. The proceeds are used for beach and park improvements around the city.

Mary Cromwell, who said she and her husband bought the house because they wanted to be near the park, said she would sell her home rather than move her fence. If the city took back those 2 1/2 feet, she and her husband would probably have to move their swimming pool, she said.

“To us, it’s our yard,” she said. “It’s a useless piece of city property. I just don’t think we’re doing anything that affects anybody.”