Neighbors Up in Arms Over Bulky Transplant : Brentwood: The Building and Safety Commission rejected homeowners’ request to revoke the permit of a 6,200-square-foot duplex that was relocated from Beverly Hills to a bungalow-studded neighborhood.

She calls it the Nightmare on Wellesley Street. It came to her neighborhood like a bad dream, without warning. In the middle of a September night. In more than one segment.

Amelia Warwick said she now must face the “monstrosity” daily in her South Brentwood neighborhood, and she and other horrified homeowners want to send it back where it came from.

The object of their scorn is a boxy duplex moved west from Beverly Hills and planted at 832 Wellesley--which is actually an avenue that ends at Montana Avenue, across the street from the Brentwood Country Club boundary.

The offending structure covers 94% of its lot in a neighborhood where most homes occupy about 25% of the property. The duplex is tall enough to dwarf the surrounding bungalows and will have an apartment-like stairway running diagonally across the front of the building.

Although the behemoth from Beverly Hills took most of the neighbors by surprise, its cross-town move was approved by the city Department of Building and Safety as befitting the neighborhood.

An effort by the South Brentwood Homeowners’ Assn. to have the permit revoked by the Building and Safety Commission was denied Tuesday on a 3-2 vote.

“I don’t know what else these people want from us,” developer Arnie Corlin, co-owner of the duplex, told the commission. Corlin said he viewed the building, built in the late ‘30s on Camden Drive in Beverly Hills, as an asset to the area.

It will get a new front and be tastefully painted and landscaped, he said. Ultimately, Corlin said in an interview, he and a partner hope to sell the two units as condominiums.

About 40 residents trekked downtown to City Hall to protest the granting of the permit, with their councilman, Marvin Braude, leading the charge. The commission received about 86 letters opposing the relocated building.

The appeal was based on a provision of the law that requires a relocated building to conform to its new location as to size, architecture and design. “This is a gross deviation from the neighborhood standards,” Braude argued to the commission.

Resident Robert Breech noted that at 6,200 square feet, the duplex has twice the square footage of the largest dwelling on the street, where the majority of houses are in the range of 1,000 to 1,500 square feet.

Breech said the rectangular design of the building was disparagingly called a “dingbat” by architects. “Cars literally slow in their tracks to observe it,” he said. “It should be lifted up and taken out.”

Residents were not forewarned that the building would be arriving because no public notice is required when a building is relocated, according to department officials.

Developer Corlin said he talked to some neighbors before moving the duplex, but some of them claim that he misrepresented the building. Attorney and homeowner Sheldon Jaffe said after the hearing that his wife and another neighbor were told the day before the duplex was moved that they “were moving in the most beautiful Spanish duplex ever seen in Beverly Hills.”

A building and safety inspector approved the project, using guidelines in the ordinance that require surveying buildings within 1,000 feet of the site. Because there are large buildings a few blocks away on Montana in an area zoned for apartments, the inspector found the duplex suitable for the area.

To the neighbors, it sticks out like a sore thumb. The neighborhood, south of Montana and north of Wilshire Boulevard, between Bundy Drive and Wellesley Avenue, is filled for the most part with small houses of various designs and vintage. They are set back from the street with atypically large front yards, giving the area an expansive, green look.

There are a few other visible signs that the neighborhood has been discovered. Remodeling projects are under way, and a few large homes dot the area. But the relocated building galvanized the residents, said Ellie Pelcyger. “The obscenity of this one just upset everyone,” Pelcyger said.

Pelcyger, a member of the homeowners’ appeal committee, said they are reviewing their next step and may file suit. “If building and safety won’t enforce the law, we’re investigating who will,” she said.

But Warren O’Brien, who heads the department, told the commissioners after the vote that the problem was the ordinance itself, which requires an inspector to take into account buildings within 1,000 feet, even though they may be on a major street zoned for large buildings.

Although commissioners expressed the hope that Corlin would work with homeowners to mitigate their objections, the climate does not seem favorable. Corlin said that he keeps finding nasty notes and other unspecified mischief in his building each day and that his workers are being harassed by passers-by.

Residents accused Corlin of lying on his application for a permit. Jaffe told the commissioners that the developer had understated the size of the building.

Corlin said any misstatement was unintentional and had been corrected.