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Arcadia Weekly Aug 19, 2015
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Hollis Rendering. – Courtesy Photo
Residents Launch Ballot Measure to Change Building Rules
By Joe Taglieri
The weather isn’t the only thing heating up in Arcadia these days. The temperature is also steadily heading northward in the struggle between developers who want to build large homes in order to maximize profit and residents concerned about loss of privacy, view obstruction, and other negative neighborhood impacts that result from unbridled mansionization.
Two notable cases have recently surfaced that could significantly affect the city’s political landscape in the coming months.
One involves a group of south Arcadians opposed to a project that seeks to build a two-story, more than 2,500-square-foot home in place of the existing one-story, 624-square-foot house built in 1949 on a lot that totals 7,600 square feet.
The other features a ballot measure backed by Arcadia homeowners that, if approved by voters in April, will shift the city’s zoning code in a direction that could make it difficult to build a giant house.
Throughout this year a growing number of residents have mobilized into groups that aim to project a united front of opposition against residential development projects throughout the city.
Sherilee Pocino lives in south Arcadia near the city’s eastern border in a neighborhood without a homeowner association. Since July, Pocino and a group of more than 50 residents called The Neighbors of Hollis Lane have voiced their displeasure with a proposed construction project that the neighbors claim is inappropriately out of code and shouldn’t have received city planners’ approval.
“Property owners should be able to build what they want as long as they follow building and zoning codes,” said Pocino, who lives on Hollis Lane-adjacent 5th Avenue. “They knew or should have known what the codes were when they purchased the property.”
Project designer Marvin Fong has requested three exceptions from the building code, according to a city staff report:
–A 10-foot 4-inch rear-yard setback for an attached trellis and a 15-foot rear-yard setback for the first-floor living area instead of the code’s 25-foot requirement;
–A 30-foot 6-inch second-story backyard setback instead of the required 35 feet; and
–A 39-foot 2-inch front setback for a covered porch instead of the nearly 48-foot code requirement, which is based on the average front-yard setback of the two adjacent properties.
The Planning Commission is currently considering the proposed project at 2236 Hollis Lane. At a recent meeting, Pocino and a contingent of residents from throughout the city shared their concerns about the project as well as real estate development trends in Arcadia.
“We oppose the second story rear-yard setback variance of 4 feet 6 inches,” Pocino told the commission on Aug. 11. “Second floors are difficult to visually screen. … A tight second floor setback in this already tight situation would be particularly invasive.”
Pocino also voiced opposition to Fong’s request for a reduction of nearly nine feet for the front setback.
“This is a substantial variance for the small 25-foot front yard,” she said. “And this variance sets a precedent. It would be used to calculate the setback of the neighboring home, also owned by [Johnny Zhang], and would allow that home to be built 4.5 feet farther forward.”
In an interview Fong said, “an owner or client always has the legal right for exceptions, and in this case we have done that. It’s a very common practice. …
“This is an unusual lot that’s kind of small and has unique constraints as written in the code,” the Arcadia-based architect continued. “The city planning department has realized that some constraints are not reasonable, and at the staff level the planning department is currently in favor of the project.”
Fong also observed that “neighbors have the right to protest” aspects of his design they don’t like.
“We’re just going through the civil process,” he said. “We’re having a very professional and honest exchange.”
An Aug. 10 article in the Pasadena Star-News, however, reported residents’ allegations of attempts to “bribe” them into supporting the project with offers of gifts and financial incentives.
“I was in shock that they were actually approaching me,” 5th Avenue resident Debbie Clemmer told the newspaper. “Nothing is going to make me go against my initial morals and my neighbors’ morals of sticking to our city’s code. We will stand firm by it.”
April Verlato, who chairs the Highlands Homeowner Association’s Architectural Review Board, also addressed the Planning Commission last week.
“We have a residential zoning code with lots of rules about front-yard setbacks, rear-yard setbacks, side-yard setbacks for both first-floor and second-floor elements, heights and lot coverage,” Verlato said.
“These restrictions or limits were established by our city council in order to protect and preserve the quality of life of adjacent properties because it has been firmly established that what is built on one lot will affect the quality of life and property values of the entire neighborhood.”
On Aug. 13 Verlato announced the filing of a proposed ballot initiative for voters’ consideration in next year’s election that if approved will establish more stringent building-size restrictions.
The proposition was co-authored by Laurie Thompson, ARB chairwoman for the Santa Anita Village Association, and Richard Midgley, president of the Santa Anita Oaks Homeowners’ Association, and received input from residents of the Lower Rancho neighborhood and south Arcadia.
“In response to the City Council’s 3-2 vote to suspend residential zoning code updates, this [homeowner coalition] formed and drafted this initiative,” Verlato said in a statement.
She also highlighted the “alarming rate” at which residential construction projects are being proposed – “165 new homes were submitted in 2014 in Arcadia as opposed to approximately 70 in Temple City, 20 in Monrovia and 15 in San Marino,” Verlato said.
“Many of the new homes in Arcadia are out of scale and proportion to the neighborhoods,” she added. “Arcadia’s codes have no limit on the amount of square footage that can be built on a lot. This ballot initiative sets limits in line with neighboring, quality cities. These limits will help protect views and privacy and preserve property values.”
As to the growing number of Arcadians taking an interest in the issue of mansionization, Verlato said in an interview the increasing political participation is “a product of the lack of reasonable development standards, which have created almost like a development frenzy that continues unchecked. It’s the snowball effect – developers keep asking for more and more and keep getting it, so at this point development has become unreasonable.”
An Aug. 11 story in the Los Angeles Times spotlighted the flap between residents and developers backed by a narrow majority of the five-member Arcadia City Council.
Council Member Sho Tay told the newspaper he agrees with the need for revising the residential zoning code.
Tay also shifted focus to the broader issue of mansionization as part of a trend that reaches far beyond Arcadia’s borders.
“As incomes rise, it’s natural for home buyers, both domestic and foreign, to want bigger homes,” the newspaper paraphrased him as saying.
“A 10,000-square-foot lot with a 7,000-square-foot home, that’s too big, I feel,” Tay told the Times. “But that’s what people want now.”
Verlato disagreed.
“I don’t think it’s true, I don’t think everybody wants a big house,” she said in an interview. “People who are attracted to Arcadia are attracted to modest homes on generous-sized lots.”
Planning commissioners continued the public hearing on the Hollis Lane project to their next meeting on Sept. 8 at Fong’s request, documents show.
In an Aug. 5 letter to city planner Tim Schwehr, Fong explained that he and property owner Zhang need more time to confer with neighbors “on what additional modifications to the project we are going to propose in the next round.”
Zhang also owns the house next door and “would like to redevelop that property with a new two-story residence in the near future,” according to a city staff report.
The county assessor’s website shows Zhang acquired in May 2014 the 2236 property for $550,000 and 2240 Hollis Lane for $670,000.
To qualify for the city’s April ballot, the initiative proposed by the HOA coalition requires a petition signed by at least 10 percent, or more than 3,000, of Arcadia’s registered voters.
