Steel rethinks stance on remodel

Deirdre Newman

EASTSIDE-- Earlier this month, Costa Mesa Councilman Chris Steel

said he opposed a second-story home remodel on Broadway because the

expansion was too big for the area.

But at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, he said he was not against

the second-story addition and had no problems with the proposal. When

the vote came, he joined the three other council members present to

approve the expansion 4-0.

What happened to change his mind and cause the abrupt about-face?

“Maybe Chris has seen the light,” joked colleague Gary Monahan,

who has supported the home remodel all along.

Steel said his appeal of Steven Dewan’s expansion, which received

unanimous Planning Commission approval after it was denied by the

city’s zoning administrator, was meant to send a message to his

fellow council members that clearer guidelines are needed in the

future for residents planning second-story remodels.

But council members have already gotten that message loud and

clear. At their last meeting in early January, the council

unanimously approved reviewing the city’s design standards.

That review comes after a year-and-a-half during which every

second-story addition has had to pass muster on its compatibility and

harmony with the neighborhood, even if it met all of the standards.

“Now you can conform to every code and design standard, then fall

into a subjective design compatibility discussion,” Monahan said.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

The solution, Monahan suggested, is to require projects only to go

through the design review if they don’t conform to the standards.

The zoning department is also suggesting more specific and

stringent standards to make decisions more objective, said Perry

Valantine, zoning administrator.

“The [current] standards require this discretionary review, notice

to neighbors and finding of compatibility and harmony and those are

subjective standards, as evidenced by the fact we don’t all agree,”

Valantine said.

That disagreement has manifested itself in a flurry of appeals to

the council and Planning Commission over Valantine’s denials of

second-story additions -- the Dewans’ being the latest.

Valantine said he denied the Dewans’ request because he imposed an

additional criteria of harmony and compatibility based on

considerable comments from residents in the area that the design of

the second-story addition wasn’t compatible with their back yards.

Back yards in this area of the Eastside are unusual because they

are in between the house and the garage, not in the back of the

property. The Dewans’ second story would mostly be built over the

breezeway between their house and their garage, affecting the back

yards of neighbors.

Steel said he ultimately changed his mind and approved the

family’s remodel because he was impressed by the number of letters in

support of the project.

The council’s ultimate approval was the ninth time a city body has

overturned Valantine’s denials.

Monahan said this track record sends a message to the zoning staff

-- that although “harmony and compatibility” are open to

interpretation, they should not be so restrictive.

“I think there’s a message that people still have the right to

build, and unless it’s way out of whack and not in the code, we don’t

want to be denying it,” Monahan said.

The review of the design standards is tentatively scheduled for

its first public hearing by the Planning Commission in late February.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN may be reached at (949) 574-4221 or by e-mail at

[email protected].