Council OKs Stricter Rules for Motels

The City Council wants to return blighted motels beset with crime and other ills to those for whom they were intended: tourists.

Council members passed a new law this week that aims to clean up problem lodges by reducing the number of long-term tenants, some of whom have been involved in illegal activity at some motels along Newport and Harbor boulevards, officials said.

The law, to take effect in January, targets prostitution, drugs and the selling of illegal goods. It limits to 25% the portion of a motel’s rooms that can be rented to an occupant for more than 28 consecutive days or 28 nonconsecutive days in a two-month period.

Other provisions mandate that:

* On-site management be available 24 hours a day.

* Maid service be performed every three days and between changes in occupancy.

* In-room telephones be available at least for emergency calls.

* No room be assigned more than twice in 24 hours.

* All guests provide valid driver’s licenses or identification cards and up-to-date vehicle information, which must be kept by the inns for at least 30 days after the guests check out and must be available to police on request.

The new law “just helps us ensure that they run a cleaner operation,” Police Chief David L. Snowden said. “It gives us greater latitude on enforcement.”

Stepped-up enforcement has already reduced crime, Snowden said, but there still are concerns.

“Understand that we have a lot of good motels and hotels in Costa Mesa,” he said. “But to the ones that aren’t, we’re sending a message.”