Now months away from an election, officials in OC\u2019s biggest city say they need a new ordinance to cite properties that repeatedly generate police calls due to what staff call a gap in their city code despite concerns such a law could be weaponized by disgruntled neighbors<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava, who is running for reelection, said she was worried small businesses would be targeted by the ordinance and there are already laws in place to address such issues that could be better enforced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019re probably rules that we already have in place that could be enforced more effectively before we put parameters in place that end up hurting our residents,\u201d she said at Tuesday\u2019s city council meeting, questioning the necessity of the proposed law.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make sure we\u2019re giving you clear guidance so that we\u2019re not hurting our residents or just duplicating efforts that maybe we just need to let Anaheim Police Department or code enforcement know of rules that already exist and ask them to enforce those rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heather Allen, the city\u2019s planning and building director, said there is a gap in Anaheim\u2019s current municipal code<\/a> when it comes to what they call \u201cchronic nuisance properties\u201d that place high demands on police and code enforcement.<\/p>\n Allen added the ordinance they explore will be intended to address that gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not looking at this as an opportunity to double dip on something that is already a nuisance. If you\u2019re already a nuisance and we have tools in the code, we\u2019re fine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of that gap where we just have a business that we need to have a conversation with, and then we need a little bit of teeth to start that with a monetary citation.\u201d<\/p>\n Rubalcava also questioned if they have the resources to enforce the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to a city staff directory<\/a>, there are nearly 40 code enforcement officers in Anaheim and 17 of them are part time in a town of roughly 341,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n Officials have allocated over $20 million dollars for community preservation and licensing in their Planning & Building budget<\/a> \u2013 the category which code enforcement officers fall under.\u00a0<\/p>\n The city has allocated a majority of their general fund budget<\/a> on public safety with almost $224 million going to the police department.\u00a0<\/p>\n A New Law to Clean Up Beach Blvd<\/p>\n Ultimately, city council members voted unanimously Tuesday to direct staff to work with Councilman Ryan Balius on a potential ordinance to crackdown on chronic nuisance properties<\/a> \u2013 including problematic abandoned buildings and seedy motels \u2013 and fine negligent property owners.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to look for ways to eliminate activity along Beach Boulevard,\u201d said Balius, the District 1 representative who requested the ordinance. \u201cThis would maybe give us the ability to bill for that service call to the business that\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n His request comes as a couple OC cities are cracking down and heightening enforcement on unkept vacant and abandoned buildings that officials say are a drain on city resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n [Read: Another Orange County City Takes a Hard Look at Abandoned Buildings<\/a>]<\/p>\n Meanwhile, one local Anaheim business owner raised concerns a new nuisance property law could lead disgruntled residents to make several complaint calls to the police about a neighboring business owner.<\/p>\n Marina Mondragon, whose family owns the long-running Mondragon Family Market, said efforts to improve their business including putting up murals has sparked complaints about the shop in the past and worried the proposed ordinance could be used against the grocery store.<\/p>\n \u201cMy concern is that without safeguards or complaint-driven processes, my business can be weaponized. If someone can repeatedly file complaints against the same property, those complaints can create the appearance of an ongoing problem that can impact a business\u2019s reputation, and repeatedly use city staff and resources unnecessarily,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Balius said his intent was to address nuisance complaints about motels on Beach Blvd \u2013 ones that officials in both Anaheim and Stanton have repeatedly said are a hotbed for prostitution and drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not my intent to penalize businesses in any way or weaponize our code enforcement department. Just simply to put another tool in a toolbox to kind of help me and get some of our nuisance problems off of Beach Boulevard,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Councilwoman Norma Campos Kurtz said the law could be used against liquor stores where there \u201cpeople hanging around causing problems.\u201d<\/p>\n Rubalcava said it\u2019s already illegal for people to drink in public and they could call the state\u2019s Department of Alcohol Beverage Control.<\/p>\n Councilman Carlos Leon, who is also running for reelection, questioned if the ordinance would apply to abandoned buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Neighboring cities have already implemented laws against vacant properties.<\/p>\n This summer, Orange<\/a> officials adopted an ordinance aimed at holding property owners accountable for not maintaining and securing empty buildings while Stanton<\/a> leaders implemented stricter maintenance rules and annual fees on such properties.<\/p>\n Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, who is also running for reelection, said she would also like staff to look at cracking down on unkept vacant businesses that attract loiters.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to see what remedies are out there for property owners that are just absentee landlords, not taking care of maintaining and protecting their properties.\u201d<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken\u2019s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, Anaheim officials and city council candidates \u2013 particularly the ones representing the western part of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,5801,75604,2267],"class_list":["post-446217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-natalie-rubalcava","tag-ryan-balius","tag-voice-of-oc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CityCouncil_Anaheim_Jan13_2026_Taylor-12.jpg\")
Council Member Ryan Balius at the Anaheim City Council meeting on Jan. 13, 2026. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC<\/p>\n