City fighting for weed removal

Deirdre Newman

City leaders are fed up with weeds running rampant along certain

freeway entries and exits.

On Tuesday, at the request of Councilwoman Libby Cowan, Mayor Gary

Monahan asked that a letter be sent to Caltrans, which owns the

weed-clogged areas, asking it to clean them up or pay up.

“One of the things we do is require property owners to keep up

their property, and if they don’t, the city cleans it up and bills

them,” Cowan said. “I would like to do that with Caltrans. I know

they don’t have any money, but it sends a statement.”

Caltrans doesn’t handle the landscaping maintenance directly but

contracts out for things such as weed control, spokeswoman Sandra

Friedman said. Caltrans has not been negligent in eliminating the

weeds, she said.

“Caltrans has spent extra funds and purchased weed-whacking

machines to address the need, and we’re doing the best we can,”

Friedman said.

The biggest problems areas at the southbound Harbor Boulevard exit

off the San Diego Freeway, the north side of the southbound Fairview

Avenue offramp off the San Diego Freeway and the interchange leading

from the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway onto the northbound San Diego

Freeway, Cowan said.

The city started putting pressure on Caltrans in June to remove

the weeds to spiff up the entryways to Costa Mesa before the Orange

County Fair. But the results were not satisfactory, said Bill Morris,

director of Public Works.

So the city redoubled its efforts and is now pushing even harder

to get the weeds removed, calling the situation a fire hazard, Morris

said. He acknowledged that the fault lies more with the companies

Caltrans contracts out with to do the weed maintenance than with

Caltrans.

The pressure is starting to pay off slowly, Morris said.

“It’s just now that they’re starting to make somewhat of an

effort,” Morris said. “They are doing some cleanup that we’ve

noticed.”

Friedman said the construction projects on the San Diego Freeway

are winding down and that’s when the landscaping really begins.

“But that doesn’t excuse the fact that the weeds still need to be

addressed,” Friedman said.

Friedman also pointed out that the rains this year caused tall

weeds, and while some can be removed by machines, others are near

concrete barriers and have to be removed by hand, which is more

labor-intensive.

Cowan said the Harbor Boulevard exit has looked particularly

unsightly in the last week or so. Friedman said she drove around the

Harbor area on Thursday afternoon and found that the criticism is not

warranted.

“There is an awful lot of weeds that aren’t there,” Friedman said.

“They have done an awfully good job of getting rid of a lot of stuff.

I don’t see where the criticism comes from. There’s a lot of stuff

that’s gone. It’s a huge area. The southbound side seems to be all

trimmed and cut.”