Ventilator on Roof Called Affront to Aesthetics : Eyes of Beholders Find No Beauty in View of the Top
“It’s ghastly,” said one resident, who looks directly at the metal object from her condominium next door.
Another neighbor, Ned Patton, said it sometimes makes a distracting hum.
The cause of the controversy in this city that prides itself on aesthetics is a ventilation unit installed about three months ago atop an 18-unit condominium on Via Campesina.
The shiny rooftop structure--that ventilates the garage on the lower level--appears to be about eight feet high, connected to a smaller rectangular unit by about 15 feet of metal tubing.
“It’s so obtrusive that it looks like a shopping center unit,” Councilman James Kinney said in an interview.
Kinney said he cannot recall a similar problem with other condominiums. Patricia Gribbin, manager of the Palos Verdes Homes Assn., said she does not remember anything of this “magnitude” occurring before.
The association has regulated city deed restrictions since the city’s first homes were built in 1923. It also has an “art jury,” including four architects, who rule on the exterior appearance of new or remodeled buildings.
Gribbin said the deed and architectural restrictions exist to preserve aesthetics and property values and maintain Palos Verdes Estates as “a delightful place to live.”
According to the city, the garage ventilation system was required as a safety feature and a permit was issued for it. But the city says that what was put on the roof differs from what was shown on plans submitted by developer Nick Olar, who is a partner in the project along with contractor Dominic Fucci. Neither returned several phone calls seeking comment.
“Our plan shows a ventilation system inside the garage and does not show that size of a system on the roof,” said city Building Inspector Gary Wynn.
The homes association contends that the ventilation system never was considered by the art jury, which approved plans for the building. Ventilation plans were supposed to have been submitted before installation but were not, Gribbin said.
The association also said that crushed red rock has been used on the flat roof instead of crushed burnt clay--the required material in the Via Campesina neighborhood--that the art jury approved.
Officials said the first complaints to the city and the association came from neighbors who telephoned in early November about the size of the system and the prospects of having to breathe fumes blown out of the garage.
They began agitating at City Council meetings for removal of the ventilation system, and on Dec. 9 project architect William Lusby--representing Olar and Fucci, builders and owners of the condominium--conceded that the system is out of place in the neighborhood and said it would be changed.
“A fan unit can be placed in the garage and the exhaust duct on the roof can be screened with an architectural feature to make it pleasing,” Lusby said in an interview.
Work Not Done
But failure to correct the situation by now has brought the city and the association to the brink of legal action against the condominium builders.
The council has refused to issue occupancy permits for any more than the eight condominium units already sold until something is done.
“It is an unreasonable amount of time to solve this problem,” said Kinney. “The owner has indicated to the city they would process new plans and have it removed, and they have not done it.
At a council meeting Jan. 27, Councilman Ronald Florance said the city should “take all legal action necessary to get these guys to comply with the law” and City Atty. Mark Allen was asked to explore what can be done.
Ventilation Needed
Wynn has recommended that the city void the ventilation permit so the city could compel its removal as a nuisance. Kinney, however, said that unless the garage has some kind of ventilation system, it cannot be used, which he said would unfairly punish people who have bought condominiums--which sell for $269,000 to $289,000, according to one couple that has moved in.
Gribbin said the homes association is still negotiating with the developer and will file a civil lawsuit if that is necessary to compel builders to submit ventilation plans to the art jury and change the roofing material to the crushed burnt clay that was approved.
Lusby, the architect, said he has not talked to Olar since December and does not know why the ventilation system problem has not been corrected. He said the system was handled by the builders’ engineer and he had nothing to do with it.
As for the roofing material, Lusby said Fucci told him he used crushed rock that is similar in color to crushed tile “because they could not find crushed tile anywhere.” He said the builders “should have gone to the art jury and asked for a substitution.”
No Plans Submitted
At the council session on Jan. 7, Olar said he could have had the ventilation unit down in 24 hours but he blamed delays on the holidays and city paper work. Inspector Wynn, however, told the council that no plans to alter the system had been submitted to either the city or the association.
The Via Campesina flap has raised a side issue about the art jury, with resident Robert Hutchinson, Jr.--who concedes that he opposed the building in his neighborhood “right from the beginning”--charging that architect Lusby has a “conflict of interest” because he also is a member of the jury.
But Gribbin and Lusby say that at one time or another, all architects on the jury have projects in the city. When a jury member’s work is being considered, he leaves the room and receives rulings and comments in the same way as other architects. Both said jurors are tougher on each other than they are on other architects.
