An Orange County, California, neighborhood of homeowners has been told they must remove their swimming pools due to the maintenance requirements of an underground sewage pipe located on their properties.

Nearly 30 homes in a Huntington Beach neighborhood were surprised to learn that they will soon be losing access to major portions of their backyards, due to a 30-foot easement there.

Residents received letters from the Orange County Sanitation District (OC San) on December 1, 2023, which informed them of a 69-inch wastewater pipe that had been installed in 1959, when most of the area had been farmland. The pipeline transports 10 million gallons of wastewater daily and serves eight major Orange County communities.

The letters stated that the pipe is nearing the end of its lifespan, and now to ensure public health and prevent sewage spills, the district needs access to the pipe in a project called the “Miller-Holder Rhone Lane Sewer Easement Clean-Up.”

The letters also listed specific items each of the homeowners had installed on the easement, such as swimming pools, decks, outdoor kitchens, landscaping, fencing, etc. Residents were given 60 days from receipt of their letters (meaning until February 1) to sign a paper acknowledging that all of their improvements had to go.

The Los Angeles Times reported on some of the residents affected.

Many of the residents said they were totally unaware of the easement. Frank Clark, 79, has owned his home on Rhone Lane since the early 1970s, and shortly after moving in, he installed a backyard pool with all of the proper permits to do so. Despite this fact, OC San claims his pool encroaches on the easement, and it must be removed.

He said he didn’t know about the easement and doesn’t think he should have been able to get the pool permits in the first place.

“To me, somebody should have flagged [the construction in the 1970s] and said, ‘No, you can’t do it, because you’re on an easement,’” Clark told the Times reporter. “The communication process should have been better. If I was Orange County Sanitation, maybe every 10 years send out a notice, ‘Don’t forget, part of your property is on an easement.’ But the first time I heard from Orange County Sanitation was with that December letter.”

Asked why the City of Huntington Beach issued permits for pools and other structures within the OC San easement, the sanitation district responded, “OC San respectfully defers this question to the City of Huntington Beach.”

Furthermore, the district insists that property owners were warned throughout the years about the prohibition of fences, pools, and other permanent structures on the easement. Officials also said homeowners were informed about the pipe through their titles.

Phillip and Andrea Rizzo live a few houses away from Clark, and they also have a swimming pool the sanitation district says must be demolished. Their letter demanded that they clear all improvements off of 1,200 square feet from their property line, where the district will install a 6-foot block wall preventing access from the last 20 feet of their yard.

Along with neighbors, the Rizzos have been attending Huntington Beach City Council meetings to plead with the city to intervene.

“Weneedyourhelp,”Rizzosaidtothe council. “We need you to support us.”

The Rizzos have lived in their home since 2004, and Phillip pointed out that the district is now taking property that was included in the sale price calculation of their home. Furthermore, they and other residents have been paying property taxes based on the land assessment of the properties for the last 60 years.

“I was able to confirm at the O.C. Tax Assessors office that no adjustment has been made to the tax assessment for these properties since 1960 to allow for the extremely restrictive nature of this easement,” Rizzo said at a recent City Council meeting.

Asked how property values will be affected by the district’s enforcement of the easement, OC San stated that it “cannot predict what the ramifications of the easement clean-up will be to individual property owners’ home values, other than properties will be brought into compliance with the utility easement.”

At the City Council meeting, Rizzo said that he and his wife bought their Huntington Beach home in part because of the large yard and the inground pool that existed. The youngest of their five children, 19-year-old AJ, has cerebral palsy, and they believe he benefits from water therapy. But for safety reasons, last year, they decided to remove their permitted inground pool, which had always made them a little nervous, and replace it with an aboveground therapy pool with a walkway to accommodate his wheelchair.

No sooner had that project been completed when they received their letter telling them that they must remove the pool.

They were informed that any structure encroaching on the easement was subject to removal at the property owner’s expense.

As a gesture of goodwill, however, the district offered to pay for the removal, (with the exception of inground swimming pools, overhangs, grottos, rock slides, and raised water fountains). And as a “compromise,” OC San would also pay for a 6-foot block wall at

Design Priority 1

Project Description the easement’s boundary, meaning the near permanent loss of 1,200 square feet from their backyards. At the owner’s request, OC San will install a gate for the owner to visit their blocked-off property within the easement area.

Property owners were given 60 days to agree to this compromise, after which it would be rescinded.

Scott Monastra has also been attending City Council meetings. He and his family have lived in their home on Rhone Lane since 1993. In 1999, his family decided to put a pool in.

“Our kids have grown up swimming in the pool,” Monastra said. “Now we have four grandkids. Those grandkids are all five and under, and now they’re really starting to enjoy the pool.”

Monastra explained that in 1999, they drew up plans for the pool that was approved by the City of Huntington Beach. A permit was given, inspections were done, and the final project was approved by the city.

But now they, too, have gotten a letter stating that they have “unauthorized encroachments on the easement” behind the house. Monastra thinks that those permits mean that his pool is authorized.

“We’re asking for help,” he pled to council members. “Guidance. Do we have any recourse?”

In response, the council voted unanimously to ask the district for an additional 120 days for the residents to sign the compromise agreement. OC San agreed to offer at least a one-month extension, meaning until the end of February.

Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said he thinks the property owners have a point. He’s met with several residents as well as lawyers from OC San.

“An easement basically holds that I have a right of certain use to somebody else’s property,” Gates said. “But when that easement, as OC San is basically saying, transmutes into complete, entire ownership and total possession of the entire ground surface, that’s really not an easement. That’s owning it in fee.”

With the February 29 deadline having passed, Service Industry News contacted parties representing both sides of the battle over the easement asking for an update.

We received the following response from Jennifer Cabral, an administration manager with OC Sanitation.

“We have officially entered into the full litigation process, so I will not be able to provide all of the information you have requested.”

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