LAKE FOREST : Officials Won’t OK Fence Between Parks

A cautious City Council declined to allow a fence to be built in Rancho Serrano Park that a homeowners association says would reduce crime.

Council members voted against the fence 3 to 2 on Tuesday, citing concerns over maintaining the barrier.

The council did agree to help create a rigorous Neighborhood Watch program in the area and continue to have police keep a close eye on the park.

Rancho Serrano Homeowners Assn. officials said the fence is needed to keep vandals and drug users from a second, private park owned by the association that is adjacent to Rancho Serrano Park near Trabuco Road. The private greenbelt is known as Serrano Park.

Residents said vandals have driven cars between the two parks. The same youths also regularly drink and take drugs in both parks, association officials said.

The homeowners volunteered to pay for a wrought-iron fence--if the city would assume ownership and maintenance of the fence.

Mayor Richard T. Dixon and Councilman Peter Herzog supported the association’s proposal.

“If [the association] is willing to build it and donate it,” Herzog said, “I have no problem with that.”

Councilwoman Kathryn McCullough said she has more problems with the city accepting responsibility for the fence than the homeowners group building a barrier to keep out criminal elements. “I just feel . . . they should accept liability” for the fence, she said.