Fairview Park meeting grows heated
Jennifer Kho
COSTA MESA -- Residents with property that extends into Fairview Park
are interested in buying the little bits of land, but the city may not be
able to legally sell them.
Residents with views from both sides of the park’s property line met
Tuesday at City Hall for what turned into a heated discussion about homes
that encroach into the park.
“All of you, as private owners, wouldn’t buy a house without a deed,”
said Bill Morris, public services director for the city. “If there’s some
written documentation, please let us see it because, if you’ve got the
rights to that property, we’re wasting your time and ours. At this point,
we’re assuming that it is city property.”
About 20 of 32 backyards on Swan Drive, west of Placentia Avenue,
illegally encroach on the public park, Morris said.
Some of the Fairview Park encroachments, which take the form of
planter boxes, walls and patio furniture, are less than a foot out of
bounds, while others jut nearly 20 feet into the park.
Tim Cromwell, a Swan Drive resident who led the opposition against
paved trails at Fairview Park earlier this year, said he would like to
buy the parkland behind his backyard.
“I would like us to, one, buy the property and, two, form some sort of
association and get some sort of encroachment permit,” he said. “I can
move my tiki bar really simply, but I don’t want to move the 2 1/2 feet
of block wall that I didn’t know was an encroachment when I bought it.”
However, the city may be legally prohibited from allowing
encroachments at Fairview Park or from selling it for private use.
One requirement of the 1986 purchase agreement, under which the
previously county-owned park was sold to the city at a reduced cost, is
that Costa Mesa must retain the parkland “as recreational open space in
perpetuity for the benefit of the public.”
“To me, that’s pretty clear,” said former Mayor Sandy Genis, who
reported the encroachments to the city. “As a little kid, you learn you
don’t take what doesn’t belong to you. Some of you ended up with what
doesn’t belong to you unbeknownst to you, and that’s not right.”
Morris said from his standpoint, the city would be unreasonable to go
after encroachments of 2 inches and less, but that property owners will
be responsible for removing bigger encroachments if the city decides they
need to.
Residents strongly said they didn’t think it should be their
responsibility, however.
“The city owns the property, so why is it encumbered upon me to remove
the encroachment?” asked Vernon Layne, a Swan Drive resident. “I only
moved here two months ago. I didn’t put the encroachment up, so why would
it be up to me?”
Ali Haghjoo, another Swan Drive resident, said he is worried about the
security of the area and about wildlife.
“Once a kid threw a rock at me in my backyard and missed me by one
foot,” he said. “People are talking about putting grass in that area and
trails going nowhere, but right now it’s used as a nesting place for
egrets and it’s pretty nice.
“It would also be nice to see a uniform property line, but I think one
of the dangers of making people remove the encroachments is all the
lawsuits, with people suing the people who originally put the
encroachments there. I think just removing the more serious violations
should be enough,” he added.
The parks and recreation commission is tentatively scheduled to
consider the encroachment issue in March or April, Morris said.
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