City draws line on beachfront yards

Newport Beach oceanfront property owners who have taken over the beach beyond their property may soon get a letter from the city.

The Public Works Department is surveying the three to four miles of its public beaches looking for property owners who are encroaching on the beach without permission. The survey will take about three more weeks to complete.

The city plans to send out letters to the property owners who have encroachments and ask for proof of their legal right to the use. Some property owners lease extensions from the city.

Beachfront property owners are not unfamiliar with the encroachment issue. In 1990, property owners who had extended their patios and yards beyond the property lines were required by the city to limit their encroachments and pay an annual lease fee to the city.

Fran Newman owns a home on Seashore Drive in Newport Beach. She pays the city about $1,000 a year to lease a 15-foot encroachment beyond her property line, though she had to remove eight feet of her yard when encroachments were at issue.

“My personal position is, our beach is so wide here that even on the busiest day of the year, July 4, none of these encroachments bother anyone,” Newman said.

Norma Loustaunau, another property owner on Seashore Drive whose home fronts the beach, said the city should not force the property owners to remove encroachments unless they reimburse them for the cost of their improvements.

“I think the patio furniture is OK but not the planting ? because the land is not theirs,” said Luis Rodriguez, another beach-area resident.

According to Lois Thompson, fiscal operations manager for Newport Beach, the city adopted a policy in 1990 that allows landscaping and other limited uses beyond the property line but the property owners must have a permit and lease the encroachment.

“If someone has an encroachment 10 feet beyond the property line, is there a harm?” City Manager Homer Bludau said, adding that the public is being deprived of the use.

Once the survey is complete, the City Council will have to decide what actions it will take against residents who have encroached illegally.

Andrew Willis, of the California Coastal Commission, said the city has powers to enforce the law with respect to these encroachments.

He added that the Coastal Commission has jurisdiction over the beaches along the coast and can also enforce against encroachments.

“We are working with the city and are in support of the city’s investigation,” said Fernie Sy, analyst for the Coastal Commission.

In the spring of 2005, some property owners near the mouth of the Santa Ana River bulldozed sand dunes to gain an ocean view. The property owners were fined about $225,000 and asked to restore the area.

Within the legislative section of the Coastal Act, there is a provision allowing the state to fine violators in cases of encroachments.