My Position on Strengthening Code Enforcement

By Barbara Denny

Coronado residents and small business owners want and deserve stronger code enforcement that is predictable, reliable and fair. Instead of the current complaint-driven code enforcement policy which is divisive and intimidating, Coronado needs pro-active code enforcement across the board from the building code to the traffic code. This will restore faith in our municipal government and improve our island quality of life.

The current complaint-driven code enforcement policy is divisive and intimidating because for a code provision to be enforced, one neighbor must sign a written complaint against another neighbor.

Instead, council should adopt a pro-active code enforcement policy that is predictable, reliable and fair to all residents and small business owners. This means that council must set priorities for code enforcement that mirror our community values. Then council must back up our code enforcement officers when they enforce our municipal code.

Pro-active code enforcement across the board from the traffic code to the building code will improve our quality of life and maintain our property values.

Stronger code enforcement could also eliminate vacancy problems like the old CoroMart store on Orange Avenue.

Recently, the San Diego Union-Tribune published the story of Coronado council's unequal code enforcement in two agenda items at our recent council meeting. By a unanimous vote of 5-0, council decided that a stucco fence which violated our building code by encroaching on city property was not worthy of an encroachment permit. The fence must come down. By a vote of 4-1, with myself dissenting, council decided that a wooden fence that violated the exact same building code provision was worthy of an encroachment permit. The wooden fence may stay up.

The majority of four council members further muddied the waters by articulating a policy that states if 80% or more of the roses on the violating wooden fence die, then the encroachment permit is automatically revoked and the wooden fence must come down. The reason given for this awkward rule is that a prominent resident has wooden fences that also violate our building code by encroaching on public property so the precedent of violating our building code with wooden fences covered in plants should be upheld. This is unfair to residents and small business owners, for all the obvious reasons. And it is extremely difficult for city staff to enforce, for all the obvious reasons.

In the end, the new, inequitable Coronado code enforcement policy described above opens our city up to financial liability exposure when the next applicant to come before council for his encroachment permit is denied special treatment under the "wooden fence with plants" exception to our building code. That is why I voted against it.

In the future, council should agree to enforce all of our codes in reliable, predictable and fair ways with no special treatment for anyone. Variances taken on a case-by-case basis should be granted in extreme situations to rectify egregious circumstances. This will improve our quality of life and restore faith Coronado municipal government.