Time to tidy up, city says

With a dash of paint here, closing an alleged illegal boarding house there, Newport Beach officials are stepping up code enforcement across the city. Keeping a close eye on things like trash also will be an important part of the city’s strategy for cracking down on drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes in the city, officials said.

It’s little things like sloppy garbage cans with the lids left off or peeling paint that make a big difference in the way Newport Beach residents feel about their community, said John Kappeler, code and water quality enforcement division manager for Newport Beach. Still, cleaning up the city can be a dirty, tedious job at times.

“It’s a little like painting the Golden Gate Bridge,” Kappeler said at a recent city council meeting. “It just takes time.”

Kappeler and other code enforcement officers have been working hard to crack down on minor nuisances like garbage cans with the lids left off in alley ways across Newport. Checking on minor things is part of the city’s new strategy of “proactive enforcement,” he said.

“It’s time-consuming. Violations aren’t always apparent,” Kappeler said “We’re limited in our views to public right of ways.”

Code enforcement officers are also spending more time educating the public by doing things like talking to neighborhood associations about enforcement, he said. Residents also can now file municipal code complaints online.

A new ordinance aimed at curbing the spread of drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes in Newport Beach is slated to go into effect next week, and code enforcement will be an important part of the city’s strategy in dealing with the homes in the coming months, Newport Beach City Councilman Michael Henn said.

A recent city-commissioned customer service survey found residents on Balboa Peninsula were less likely to have a favorable view of how the city was enforcing codes. It may be no coincidence that the peninsula also is home to Newport’s highest concentration of rehabilitation homes.

On a five-point scale, with five being the highest, most peninsula residents ranked the city’s code enforcement between 2.6 and 3.4, according to survey results.

The city has stepped up enforcement on the peninsula, Henn said.

Code enforcement officers have asked homeowners to do things like give their houses a fresh coat of paint. The city also moved last month to file criminal and civil penalties against an alleged illegal boarding house on 39th Street. Recovering drug addicts and alcoholics staying in the house had to pay weekly rent, or risked having their belongings tossed to the curb, Henn said. Boarding houses are prohibited in residential areas under city code.

“It was a particular thorn in the side of the residents in that area,” Henn said. “It’s almost incomprehensible to me that a landlord would allow this sort of thing to go on.”

The house has since shut down, Henn said.

City officials could seek additional funding within the next two months to hire more code enforcement staff, Henn said. The city also is looking at increasing fines and penalties for code violations, he said.

File municipal code complaints online:

https://www5.city.newport-beach.ca.us/quest_too/“>https://www5.city.newport-beach.ca.us/quest_too/

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].