An Orange County Superior Court judge on Monday is expected to rule on whether to grant a temporary restraining order blocking the county from using a state-and-federal program to house transients infected with COVID-19 at a Laguna Hills hotel.
On Thursday, Judge Thomas Delaney said he was inclined to grant the city of Laguna Hills’ TRO, preventing the county from using the 76-bed Laguna Hills Inn at 23061 Avenida de la Carlota as a shelter for transients either showing coronavirus symptoms or who tested positive for COVID-19.
Delaney said he felt the city’s argument that the hotel would be a public nuisance fell short, but he was leaning toward granting the TRO on the basis of the city’s argument that using the hotel for a quarantine shelter for transients was a change in the covenants, conditions and restrictions of the property, which would allow for neighboring property owners to object.
On Friday, the county’s attorneys argued in a brief that granting the TRO “would likely have a detrimental domino effect to encourage other cities and private parties to file similar suits. The proposed injunction has the effect of paralyzing the county, making it nearly impossible to respond to the governor’s state of emergency related to Project Roomkey.”
It is unlikely the county could find another hotel in south Orange County and could lose the two other hotels it has leases with if the TRO is granted, the attorneys argued.
The county’s attorneys argued that requiring consensus on a change in covenants, conditions and restrictions, or CCRs, during a state of emergency is “simply nonsense.”
“Must a fire or police department obtain HOA approval before cordoning off a neighborhood to fight a fire or for a crime scene?” the attorneys argue in the county’s brief. “Must the federal government request a Plaza Pointe HOA waiver to position troops on the streets of Laguna Hills to defend an attack against the United States?”
Orange County Chief Executive Officer Frank Kim said in a declaration that he had to pick a hotel on a list given to him by state officials and that the list “turned out to be very limited.”
Kim said it is a “never-ending challenge” finding a hotel owner willing to do business with the county housing transients.
He noted that a hotel in Laguna Woods backed out of its lease following protests from the city and the retirement community neighboring it.
He also said that his staff has told him that a requirement to clear the CCR conditions would “disrupt the whole program statewide and cause unnecessary delay and complications to this short-term emergency use of facilities, including hotels.”
There are three transients with COVID-19 from Mission Hospital who have been recommended to quarantine at the hotel, but they cannot check in because of the lawsuit, Kim said.
Kevin Akash, president of the hotel owner, Elite Hospitality Inc., said in court papers that he is “proud to work with the county of Orange” on Project Roomkey.
“Elite agreed to participate in Project Roomkey because it was the right thing to do,” Akash said. “We want to do everything we can to help our community during this time of crisis. By providing temporary lodging to those in need, we will allow them to isolate, stem the spread of the COVID-19 and lessen the impact on local hospitals and on our community as a whole.”
Akash said the hotel is “uniquely well-situated” for the program because it is next to the freeway on a major thoroughfare and is in an industrial and commercial area far from homes. Most of the neighboring businesses are closed at this time, he said.
The hotel also is close to four area hospitals, he said.
County officials say the hotels, including one in Orange and another in Stanton, will be lockdown facilities with private security preventing the participants from coming and going.
But attorneys for the city have argued that the workers hired to care for the guests could shop at area stores and get food at local restaurants, spreading the virus. They also questioned how the guests would be prevented from leaving the hotel.
nocCity officials did not immediately respond to a comment on the county’s Friday court filings.