SANTA ANA : Laundry List of Regulations OKd

Seeking to thwart crime at coin-operated laundries, the City Council this week approved strict regulations for new laundry businesses.

Officials said many laundries have become trouble spots, with drug trafficking, prostitution, loitering and other crimes taking place in or around them.

Problems are attributed to poor design of the businesses, easy access to public telephones and inadequate management.

The regulations will require that new coin-operated laundries have full-length storefront windows so that outside surveillance is possible and crimes are more difficult to hide.

The ordinance also prohibits installation of public telephones inside new laundries and states that the businesses cannot be within 300 feet of a public telephone. Video games and billiard tables are also prohibited.

Other rules state that restrooms be accessed only through an attendant. Rear exits will be prohibited unless required by building or fire codes, and operating hours will be restricted from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Laundries in the advanced stages of the city’s approval process are exempt from the new regulations.

The regulations were drawn up by city planners in conjunction with the Police Department and representatives of the coin-operated laundry industry.