Ordinance repealed

Folks can’t put up a tent or a umbrella more than six feet wide and six feet tall on public property, but the city will let them sleep there day or night.

The City Council on Tuesday repealed an ordinance that prohibited sleeping on public property, including city beaches, from 7 p.m. to 7 am., a law that has been challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, claiming the law targeted the city’s homeless.

“This is a promising moment,” said resident James Keegan, who brought in a law firm to represent a group of Laguna’s homeless population..

The Rev. Colin Henderson and resident Arnold Hano, members of the recently formed Advisory Committee on Homelessness, supported the repeal.

“There are two problems: managing the homeless and that is law enforcement and treating the causes of homelessness — and that is the major concern,” Hano said. “I don’t have the answer to the causes.”

But he said, you can’t be telling people not to sleep on the beach without providing an alternative, Hano said.

“Sleeping on the beach without city permission continues to be a violation of state law,” City Attorney Phil Kohn said. “It’s not a carte blanche that means everyone can come down to the beach.”

The council also directed staff to work with the committee to evaluate the penal code that prohibits sleeping in vehicles versus a new ordinance to establish camping and lodging regulations on public property and return to the council with an analysis and recommendations.

The local homeless population is estimated at between 40 and 50.

Friends of the Library President Martha Lydick said some of them are sleeping in the library parking area.

“What some of the volunteers have had to put up with is terrible,” Lydick said. “This is a serious problem.

“The Laguna Beach Taxpayers have been receiving donations to help the city fight the law suit filed by the ACLU, the Newport Beach law firm of Irell & Manella LLP and the [dean of] UC Irvine’s budding law school, which is trying to make a name for itself.”

Mayor Kelly Boyd and Councilwoman Jane Egly, appointed to represent the council in talks with attorneys for the plaintiffs, have already visited a project in Los Angeles to review its method of dealing with more than 5,500 homeless people in the area.

“I was told they had placed about 1,000 people,” Boyd said. “But I am not sure it fits Laguna.”

Councilwoman Toni Iseman, who serves with Boyd on the advisory committee said a meeting has been scheduled for 4 p.m., March 19 at the Third Street Community Center.

“The public is welcome,” Boyd said. “We are soliciting public comment.”