San Clemente Is Rocking His Boat

Dana Parsons’ June 22 column could not have been more timely for me. The residents of Silverado and Modjeska canyons are not the only ones suffering the tender mercies of outsiders trying to change their way of life.

When the Marine Corps stationed me at El Toro in 1975 for what would be the final tour of my 20-year career, I came looking for a place that would accommodate my retirement plans and free-dive spearfishing hobby.

I wanted a home close to the harbor with a driveway that would hold my 24-foot boat in a community where it was legal to park one. I found my dream house in San Clemente. I widened the driveway to get the boat out of the way and grew a large hedge to obscure the view of the boat from anyone not directly in front of my house.

I “lived happily ever after,” minding my own business and enjoying my boat until last year, when a new City Council, apparently bent on turning San Clemente into another pretentious, sterile community like Irvine, modified the zoning code so boats and recreational vehicles must be at least 20 feet from the curb.

Until 1991 I would have been able to comply by backing my boat over the front lawn and down the side of my house, but in reliance on the code as it then existed, I tore out the lawn and built a sunken walled courtyard at an expense of $25,000. This beautified my home and presumably enhanced property values in the neighborhood, but it cut off my options for boat parking.

The city has approved construction of a freeway interchange directly across the street from me, guaranteeing that no homeowner will ever have to look at my boat from his front door.

I doubt that drivers on the off-ramp will be offended by my boat, and the interchange will depress property values on my street far more than would a fleet of boats.

But despite my long history and the fact that I bought my home specifically because I could park the boat there, the city attorney has written me a letter telling me that unless I comply with the code change, they will bring criminal charges and request the maximum penalty of $1,000 per day and six months in jail.

When I was risking my life in Vietnam and flying photo reconnaissance missions over Cuba, I had the naive notion that I was, at least in principle, defending individual freedoms. It turns out I was wrong, or at least unsuccessful. Though three attorneys assure me the code is written so as to grandfather me in, it really doesn’t matter because I can’t afford to go to trial against a city willing to spend taxpayer money to deprive me of my property rights.

I used to be bewildered by right-wing anti-government militia nuts. Now I can at least sympathize with their point of view, if not with their methods.

Parsons’ column quotes a canyon resident as saying “If people wanted nice shiny yards and manicured lawns, they’d be living in Coto de Caza

William A. McIntyre

San Clemente