Beach ‘Yards’ Must Go, Newport Says

Newport Beach officials have drawn a line in the sand.

This month, the city ordered 138 oceanfront homeowners to stop using the public beach as their yard.

The crackdown was sparked by a survey in April that found that all but a dozen of 150 residences had expanded past their property lines.

Infractions ranged from children’s toys and patio furniture to, in more egregious cases, irrigated lawns and wooden decks, city officials said.

Carole Fuchs, 87, has already begun ripping out the garden of roses, succulents and geraniums she has tended for 34 years. Her brick walkway, railroad ties and sprinklers will need to go too.

“They’ve been here forever; they obviously belong here,” said Fuchs, who lives near the Wedge, the bodysurfing spot at the end of the peninsula. “What harm is it causing?”

Fuchs’ councilman, Tod W. Ridgeway, said he was sympathetic, but the city had no choice under state law.

“I absolutely agree [with her] from a practical point of view,” Ridgeway said. The yards “don’t impair anything. But that’s not the way the Coastal Act reads.”

Newport Beach officials said even such items as chaise lounges and gas grills placed on the public sand can create the impression that the area is private property and keep beachgoers away.

The action is the latest in a series of disputes between beachfront property owners and Newport Beach officials.

Last year, the city said a group of homeowners in West Newport Beach bulldozed sand dunes in front of their homes that blocked their ocean views. Five of them agreed to pay to restore the dunes, plus pay $225,000 in fines, but admitted no wrongdoing.

In 1990, the city found that many West Newport homes had yards that spilled onto the public beach. Because the disputed land had once been slated for a road, the Coastal Commission allowed residents northwest of 52nd Street to keep their additions for an annual fee, ranging from $308 to $925.

Homeowners near the end of the peninsula said they wanted a similar arrangement.

“Had the city come to them and offered them the same deal, they would have signed up,” said Jim McGee, an attorney representing 25 residents in negotiation with the city.

Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said Peninsula Point homeowners turned down the city’s 1990 offer to rent up to 15 feet of land in front of their homes. McGee said the proposal wasn’t made directly to his clients, but to an area homeowners association.

The attorney said Peninsula Point residents just wanted to keep their vegetation.

Ron Kent lives a few doors from Fuchs. A sprawling blanket of ice plant and other succulents grow in the sand near his home.

He planted them after 6 inches of water seeped into his house during a mid-1990s storm. Sand now catches in the vegetation and creates protective dunes.

“It keeps me from being flooded, and it’s reasonably attractive,” he said.

“This one-size-fits-all plan -- ‘Get everything that’s there out’ -- is just very strange.”

This week, the city sent a second letter to Peninsula Point residents, stating that “groundcover” and certain “landscaping trees” may be permitted.

For Fuchs, the letter came one day too late. She stared at her gutted garden and shrugged.

“It’s all right,” she said. “They tell me that today. Next year, they’ll say something different.”

A squat pine sits in the corner of her soon-to-be former garden. Fuchs’ granddaughter Karye planted it on Arbor Day in 1975. Everything else can go, she said. The pine tree stays.

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Taking over

A recent Newport Beach survey found that 138 of 150 oceanfront homes were using the public beach for their own yards. Most were minor violations, such as lawn chairs and toys. More egregious infractions included irrigated lawns, gardens and wooden decks.

Infractions

West Newport:

Micellaneous chairs, tables, toys, sports equipment left on beach: 58

Walkways (informal brick and wood): 7

Lawns:4

Flagpole: 1

Penninsula point:

Lawns: 23

Patios: 13

Non-native landscaping: 27

Source: Newport Beach city manager’s office