 "Photo: Ken Padilla, Staff Photographer")
The six-month pilot program that allows $1,000 citations to be given to noisy College Area residents is underway, giving the San Diego Police Department another tool in satisfying concerned community members' qualms against partiers. This perhaps delivers the biggest blow yet to San Diego State's supposed party-school image.
People close to the "mini-dorm" issues have said the citations - which can be issued for violating a municipal code that states amplified music cannot be heard from 50 feet or more away from a property between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. - are meant to tame the supposed behavioral problems in the College Area.
The citations, which were introduced early last month in addition to $250 and $500 versions, will be given to each tenant and possibly the landowner. It's likely that only the noisy tenants will receive the fines at first, although a landowner can be cited on the initial offense, College Area Community Council President Doug Case said. But on a second violation, the landowner will receive the citation, he said.
To avoid leaving the amount of the fines to police officers' discretion, Case said the $1,000 amount - about two-thirds of in-state tuition at SDSU - would be applied across the board.
"The hope is that (police are) not going to have to issue a lot of these because (loud residents) know it's serious," Case said.
When the fines were announced, officials said the program would begin as of today, but Case said officers had the ability to issue them last weekend. SDPD Captain Guy Swanger from the Midcity Division did not return phone messages seeking comment.
Some students, though, said the $1,000 price tag for these citations is too harsh. The amount, liberal studies senior Anson Lam said, will deter students from continuing to host parties.
The ramifications to SDSU's three-day weekend culture could be permanent, and students will have more reason to look for parties elsewhere or go to bars in Pacific Beach and downtown, Lam said.
"It reminds me of the Chinese, who had this policy, legalism, and the philosophy was that you make really strict rules for people to follow so they won't f*** up," Lam said. "I understand where they're coming from. I don't think people are going to change.
"People are still going out. When push comes to shove, I still think there's always going to be a problem with noise."
A spokesperson for City Councilman Jim Madaffer, a strong supporter of the citations whose jurisdiction includes the College Area, said he did not have time for a phone interview before deadline.
Ann Cottrell, a former SDSU faculty member who has lived in the College Area for almost 40 years and serves as the chair of the committee on code enforcement and nuisance rental properties for the CACC, said she can empathize with both sides of the mini-dorm and noise issues.
"I've got this schizophrenic feeling because I worked there," she said of her tenure at SDSU. "I loved it. I had great students. And yet I get angry because I often feel SDSU is the big elephant, like, 'We don't care.'"
Meanwhile, the city is working to revise some of the land-use codes to increase the difficulty of converting homes to mini-dorms. Earlier this month, city officials said that Michael Haaland and Ian Sells, landowners believed to have converted more than 100 homes into mini-dorms, will stop adding bedrooms to single-family homes.
The College Area Party Planning system for labeling houses was also changed recently, Case said, focusing on the most problematic houses instead of tagging as many as possible. He said the adjustment has yielded effective results.
Despite the action thus far, Case said he's still not convinced that the diverse College Area residents' can co-exist peacefully. Calls to police about parties in the community have increased in each of the past five years, from 531 in 2002 to 1,001 last year.
"I don't think there's anything that's going to be a cure-all," Case said. "The hope is that by using a combination of different strategies, making it more difficult to convert homes by changing the code, by having administrative sanctions, by having proactive education by the Good Neighbor Program, by having more code enforcement by additional staff from the university, by providing more housing to ease the housing crunch - all those things combined will help to alleviate the problem."
Code Enforcement
Representative
Last week, a code enforcement representative began looking for building and land-use violations around the College Area that are visible from the street, said R.D. Williams, director of communications and campus relations for Aztec Shops Ltd. The part-time representative, Tim Anderson, is working on a trial program to assist SDPD in enforcing the codes. In the past, Williams said, the department hasn't had enough officers to consistently enforce them.
If someone is violating codes, such as trash or parking, the person will receive a letter from Anderson on a city letterhead explaining the violation and suggesting compliance. If the problem continues, another letter will be sent, and no correction could lead to a fine. The fines will range from $100 to $1,000, Williams said.
Anderson, an SDSU alumnus, is not involved in noise violations.
The position is not paid for by state funds or student fees, said Williams, who oversees Anderson.
"Aztec Shops is involved with it because as the commercial auxiliary on campus, it made the most sense if somebody was going to hire someone in this role it'd be the auxiliary," Williams said.
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