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# ‘Hedge police’ put crackdown on hold
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/hedge-police-put-crackdown-on-hold/
- Published: 2004-05-14T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:18:09.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Prosecutors will wait to enforce law*

(Editor’s note: This is the second article in an ongoing series examining City Hall’s hedge law.) CITY HALL — Prosecutors this week temporarily called off a crackdown on illegal front hedges throughout Santa Monica that stand taller than three and a half feet.

About 200 households citywide recently were targeted under the law, which also limits back and side yard hedge heights to eight feet. Violators were ordered to clip their greens within 30 days or be fined $25,000 a day — up to a maximum of $500,000.

Upset residents flooded City Hall with complaints, crediting the hedges with providing much-needed privacy, shade and character to their neighborhoods. Although some are only inches above the legal limit for hedge heights, others tower 20 to 30 feet high.

Among those targeted was a group of residents that live in multimillion dollar homes along Adelaide Drive in northern Santa Monica — including Bobby Shriver, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s brother-in-law, and Alvin Sargent, an accomplished film writer. Both questioned the impetus for the recent enforcement and City Hall’s priorities.

“What is the right thing for the people?” asked Shriver, who has lived in Santa Monica for 27 years. “And should Lincoln Boulevard have the same rules as 23rd Street? And why do people walk up Adelaide all day long? It’s got to be something about the pretty trees there.”

Shriver’s frustration was echoed by local attorney Chris Harding, who’s been retained by two residents — one on Adelaide Drive and another north of Montana Avenue. Unless there is a safety issue, Harding said City Hall should leave the hedge owners alone.

“I think they have too many enforcement staff with not enough serious business to do,” added Harding, who called the recent hedge crackdown by City Hall officials heavy-handed and clumsy. “They are citing people for rear hedges on the alley on Adelaide which have been there for many, many decades... This is enforcement run amok.”

It’s unclear how old the hedge law is. Tim McCormick, head of City Hall’s building department, said it dates back to at least 1948, and maybe earlier. But it wasn’t until City Hall started hiring new code compliance officers that hedges were targeted, McCormick added.

“We are actually in the process of updating the historical zoning information... A lot of people are asking that question because in the zoning world that’s a common concern — that people aren’t being held to standards that are post facto... It gets to be complicated,” said McCormick, who added the recent enforcement effort was at the direction of elected officials.

McCormick said there are two key reasons for the law. First, hedges can cause safety problems, especially at intersections or next to driveways, where they can block sight lines. Second, some residents complain they make homes look like “armed fortresses.”

Citations are complaint driven, though McCormick said once staff members are called out to a particular residence, they also will cite violators in the surrounding area.

City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said she won’t pursue any of the hedge cases that have landed on her desk — except ones that represent a “clear threat to public safety” — until after the issue goes before the City Council, which is scheduled to take place on May 25\. In those safety instances, Moutrie added, City Hall “would take the most limited enforcement route available.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 14, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/051404.pdf?ref=smdp.com)