Forgive Us Our Trespasses and Sell Us Parkland, Residents Ask

The residents of Costa Mesa’s Swan Drive, whose backyards incorporate bits and pieces of a public park, agree that their encroachment onto city land is illegal. They just don’t think it’s stealing.

The offending back fences were erected decades ago, they contend, by previous residents with the tacit consent of the county, which used to own the land. Besides, the strip of dirt and brush that runs behind their homes is useless as parkland.

“Nobody needs this or even wants this,” resident Tim Cromwell, 48, said last week as he stood waist deep in a prickly bush not far from his backyard fence, which extends 2 1/2 feet into city land. “We didn’t even know we were encroaching.”

Now the city is studying the sale of 1.65 acres to the homeowners to resolve the issue. But not everyone is buying the concept.

“Most people who get caught with their hands in the cookie jar drop the cookie,” said Sandy Genis, a former Costa Mesa mayor who raised the issue three years ago. “These folks are going for more.”

Encroachment onto public property is fairly common, local municipal officials say.

Every year, code enforcement officials from Dana Point to Santa Monica find illegal patios, picnic tables and barbecue grills on public beaches.

Policies vary, but for the most part, intruders are cited and told to withdraw. Some municipalities also issue encroachment permits that indemnify the city against liability. But Costa Mesa’s move may be unprecedented. Officials could not recall an instance where those encroaching on public land were allowed to buy the property.

In equestrian-friendly Yorba Linda, the city had issued permits to residents who built fences and planted trees on public horse trails. Under tighter encroachment policies passed last summer, the practice will no longer be permitted, said Jim L. Smith, the city’s public works director.

Newport Beach collects about $150,000 a year in encroachment fees from some West Newport residents whose backyards extend onto the beach. The money is used for beach and park improvements.

Officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation said they generally do not tolerate intrusion.

“We are park poor,” said Jim Park, the department’s assistant director of special projects. “Even if the land is not 100% in use, it is still open space. Every square inch of open space is valuable to the community.”

Park said his department allowed a Hollywood Hills resident to build a fence around the back of his house on county land a few years ago. The man had argued he needed the buffer zone to discourage homeless people from setting up camp behind his home.

“We thought it was a reasonable request, so we granted a permit. Later, we found out he had built a deck and a basketball court” inside the fenced off area, Park said. The man was cited and made to tear down the improvements.

Swan Drive residents say that’s why they would rather buy the property from the city and avoid future conflict.

The parcel the city is considering selling runs along the backyards of 27 houses. The 40-foot wide swath is part of 208-acre Fairview Park, but is cut off from it by a storm channel.

Most of the houses have little or no encroachment, but eight backyard fences intrude onto public land anywhere from six inches to 22 feet.

Bill Morris, Costa Mesa’s director of public services, said all 27 homeowners would have to agree to buy the land that extends from their backyards to the storm channel. Otherwise the city would end up with unusable landlocked or uneven parcels.

The Swan Drive residents who want to purchase the land say it is useless to the public now.

The parcel is accessible from the east where the city plans to build a neighborhood park, but dead-ends at a chain-link fence and the Santa Ana River to the west.

John King, Cromwell’s neighbor a few houses down, whose fence encroaches about seven feet, said homeowners have been meeting to discuss the purchase.

Those whose backyards are not encroaching can opt not to participate unless they are interested in extending their backyards too, he said. The homeowners as a group would have to agree to buy the land, but not everyone would have to pay.

King and Cromwell said they are willing to pay a fair price for the land and any costs the city incurs during the process.

“We are just looking for a fair resolution,” King, 51, said. “It is not going to cost the city anything. It is a win-win.”

Swan Drive residents say they never were too sure where their property lines lay.

When Cromwell and his wife, Mary, bought their house seven years ago, the back fence was already there. He noticed that his neighbors’ backyards up and down Swan Drive extended to different points. He was told by neighbors that the county, which sold Fairview Park to Costa Mesa in 1986, had informally allowed the encroachment for decades because nobody really used the land.

Many of the residents placed planters beyond their fences and cleared the brush. Cromwell built a brick stairway beyond his fence and erected a tiki bar.

“Nobody comes through here,” Cromwell said.

Three years ago, Genis, the former mayor, did. She said she was walking her dog and noticed the jagged backyards, the planters, the tiki bar, and decided to investigate.

“This sets a terrible, terrible precedent,” Genis said. “Do you want something the city has? Just take it and then we will figure out a way to give more.”

The sale is far from final. When the county sold Fairview Park, it required Costa Mesa to maintain it as a public park.

Any sale would require the approval of county supervisors. And Bryan Speegle, the county’s director of planning and development services, said the county would claim part of the proceeds because it sold the land to Costa Mesa at below-market value.

The parcel’s price still must be decided. The city will hire an appraiser, officials said.

Whatever its value, Mayor Gary Monahan said, the parcel is probably worth more to the residents than to the city.

“That strip has been -- for a lack of better term -- ignored property,” said Monahan, who with the majority of the five-member council approved studying the possibility of a sale last fall.

Councilwoman Libby Cowan was the sole dissenter.

The land “doesn’t have to be groomed and turfed with picnic tables to be in use,” Cowan said. “It is in use. It is natural habitat ... and it belongs to the city. Get off it.”