Too Much of a Good Thing : Weddings Not Blissful for Park’s Neighbors

Pines Park virtually resonates romance. The little four-acre site on bluffs overlooking Capistrano Beach commands a spectacular ocean view. Stately pines shade lush, jade-green grass.

It’s a perfect place for weddings--in fact hundreds of couples have gone there in recent years to say their vows. But neighbors and the Capistrano Bay Park and Recreation District think there can be too much of a good thing.

“I’m not a grump, and I’m not anti-romance, but it’s just gotten out of hand,” said Carol Parker, who lives in the 34900 block of Camino Capistrano in Dana Point, across the street from Pines Park. She added, “This isn’t a neighborhood park any longer. They’ve made it into a wedding chapel.”

After hearing complaints from Parker and many other neighbors, the Capistrano Bay Park and Recreation District has acted to put a limit on what neighbors contend has been a nuptials explosion.

On Thursday, the district board--an independent governmental agency that serves the same geographical area as the new city of Dana Point--will consider giving final approval to a law that would regulate the weddings.

“The neighbors say their street is being tied up with traffic and parking problems,” said David A. Lewis, park district administrator. “And the neighbors tell us some of the wedding people are knocking on doors to use the bathrooms or to borrow rice or to plug in electric cords for the organ music.”

The new ordinance requires couples to get a park district permit before staging a wedding. “That’s always been our district’s policy, but a policy can’t be enforced, and an ordinance can,” Lewis said.

“We’ll be limiting wedding permits at the park to every other weekend. And after the ordinance becomes effective, anyone having a wedding without a park permit can be fined $250.” A park-use permit for weddings costs $50 an hour, Lewis said. The new ordinance will become effective the first week in September.

“We’ve been trying to keep weddings to every other weekend under our present policy, but people have been coming there every weekend, and even on weekdays, for marriages,” Lewis said.

On Monday, Parker and her next-door neighbor, Leigh Julius, looked out on Pines Park, which faces their front doors. They shook their heads as they swapped horror stories about seemingly endless wedding groups using the park. And they said they hope the new ordinance restores some peace to the bluff-top community.

“They just don’t have any consideration for the people who live across the street from the park,” Julius said as she held Mackenzie, her 3-month-old baby girl. “They block our driveways. They ask if they can use bathrooms. They ask to borrow things, including tools from the workman who’s putting an addition onto our house.”

Parker broke into a grin as she recalled some of the funnier episodes “of living across the street from an outdoor wedding chapel.”

“One time,” Parker recalled, “this woman came to my door and said she wanted to hide on the porch and watch the wedding across the street in the park. It turned out she was divorced, and her ex-husband was getting married over there.

“Then I’ve had people coming to my house to try to get rice or to borrow a necktie. And I had one bride who wanted to wash her wedding veil because it got dirty. Another wedding group wanted to borrow some bug spray to get rid of ants in the park. It gets wild.”

Park district administrator Lewis, in a separate interview on Monday, also related some amusing anecdotes from park weddings. But he added, “These things aren’t funny for the neighbors of the park.”

Lewis noted that Pines Park has no restrooms. “So it’s a big problem for the neighbors when people at the weddings knock on doors and want to use the bathrooms,” he said.

“There was even one case where a wedding party told a neighbor to stop mowing his yard because they didn’t want the noise,” Lewis added.

“I feel for the people who live around the park, and we’re trying to get some balance into the situation with this ordinance. We think it’s a good compromise. This way we’ll be able to schedule and to limit the weddings. As it is now, the weddings go on early mornings throughout late afternoons, even on weekends when there are not supposed to be any weddings there.”

Lewis said applicants must file for a park wedding permit at least two weeks in advance. The new ordinance, he added, will be effective for the district’s other parks as well. “In addition to Pines Park, we get a lot of weddings in Heritage Park and Louise Leydon Park,” Lewis said.

People who live near Pines Park said Monday that from time to time newspapers or magazines write about the photogenic little greensward. “And there’ll even be maps showing people how to get to the park, and then these strangers come from everywhere to use the park or to get married here.”

Julius conceded that at times she has enjoyed watching the park weddings. “We stand over here and look at the wedding parties and critique the dresses and things like that,” she said. “But there are so many of them, it’s just gotten out of hand now.”

According to Lewis, neighbors will be notified which weekends are officially sanctioned for Pines Park weddings. There will even be a list of those couples who obtained permits, he said.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which provides law enforcement services to the city of Dana Point, of which Capistrano Beach is now a part, will cite couples trying to marry there without a permit, Lewis added.

But Julius and Parker wondered aloud on Monday at how the enforcement was going to work. “Do they expect the neighbors to go over there and demand the wedding parties to produce their permits?” Julius asked. “I don’t think we’re going to be doing that and get beat up for our trouble.”

Lewis acknowledged that enforcement of the wedding policy “is going to be a tough call.” He added, “No one wants to bust someone on their wedding day.”