Lawn showdown ends

In January, television crews descended on the Mesa Verde home of Kevin Doane, who quickly became Costa Mesa’s biggest celebrity.

Months later, his saga ended quietly.

Doane, an unemployed contractor who lost his job with an Anaheim company when construction slowed down, stopped watering his lawn last fall, letting it decay into a heap of dirt, to save money on his water bill.

When the city fined him $150 for not maintaining his property, Doane didn’t pay. When the city tacked on an added fine and threatened to put a lien on his house, Doane showed up in the City Council Chambers with a passionately defiant, pre-written harangue, dripping with sarcasm.

“No. 1: I will not pay that — ever — and you can do whatever you want to do . . . ” he told a stunned City Council. “I’m not going to water my yard. I’m not going to put in grass. I’m not going to do any of that, although you maintain that I need to because my citation says that I have to keep it green. If I have to keep doing this and getting pushed, I will get some spray paint and paint my yard green. This is where I’m going to go with this. Or I’ll get some really ugly green rock and put rock on my dirt, which my neighbors have all said, ‘Please, Kevin, don’t do that.’”

Doane said Councilwoman Wendy Leece persuaded him to stop watering by publicly encouraging people to cut down on their water usage because of an impending drought.

What followed that first performance was not just a routine story of an unpaid ticket, but an epic battle that tested the fiber of the relationship between a city and its homeowners.

City officials, feeling a mixture of sympathy and anger at how Doane decided to handle his issue, rushed to offer support, telling him that the city grants exceptions to fines for people with financial hardships and pledging to work through the problem with him.

Nonetheless, a month later, council members again found the stocky, big-bearded man with long gray hair sitting before them.

This time, he was carrying a hand-written cardboard sign, the kind you might see a homeless man on a street corner wielding. He had apparently been unable to make his fines disappear.

“Need money to pay city of Costa Mesa $400 fine — Can’t work, will lose unemployment — Will take any donation,” the sign read.

More obsequious city responses.

More explanations to the befuddled council.

Time passed, and the hour came when Doane either had to pay his fine to get his day in court or deal with a lien on his home. On the last hour of the last day left to pay his $400 bill, Doane marched into the city’s finance office toting a bag of small change — a deft theatrical touch — followed by news cameras.

Doane was given 60 days to replant his lawn, at which point a city prosecutor said he would get his $400 back.

Having reached its climax, the dispute fell out of the public eye. Charged with replanting his lawn, Doane had no choice but to comply — sort of.

Six months after he agreed to the 60-day replanting period, Doane still has a large patch of dirt, but he has put in some rudimentary gray stone planters and planted a few drought-resistant bushes and daisies.

The city planted three trees in the planters next to the street. All told, Doane says he has spent about $2,000 on the landscaping efforts and still has yet to put in any grass. He waters the plants he does have once a week, with the hose, and the rest of the yard remains uncovered dirt.

Although he didn’t exactly comply with the city’s orders, his effort was good enough, and the city recently sent him a check for $400.

His water bill, after being cut from about $100 per month to $50, has shot back up to $80 due to the new plants and rising water costs, he said.

Nevertheless, he says his efforts weren’t for naught. When he walked into AAA the other day, the woman behind the counter recognized him from TV. A few people have told him he should run for City Council.

One of his neighbors, across the street, even put in his own version of a water-saving lawn. It’s covered with mountains of small pink and black rocks, with a few odd-shaped boulders, two smooth, round, white orbs, a wooden pagoda, and a small Buddha statue.

Doane said there were few hard feelings from his neighbors, who got a kick out of the short-lived publicity.

“Everybody [on the block] thought it was funny. They were more supportive than not. I would rather be in the background,” he said with a knowing smile on his face. “What I learned from all of this is that you can fight City Hall and you can win, but you can’t embarrass them.”